DOC Libby Prison Breakout: The Daring Escape from the Notorious Civil War Prison by Joseph Wheelan in History

Review

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Before Andersonville there was Libby Prison in Richmond.By Paul TognettiIt has been referred to as "The Bastille of the South". In March 1862 General John Winder informed a man named Luther Libby; a Maine native and Richmond businessman that the Confederate government was expropriating his three building tobacco warehouse complex for use as a prison for captured Union officers. Over the next three years thousands of Union officers would be incarcerated in a facility that would come to be known as Libby Prison. The place would prove to be a real hellhole. The prisoners were never allowed to go outside for fresh air and exercise. Food rations were limited to rock-hard corn bread; rancid meat and bug-infested soup. The men were not issued blankets and most were forced to sleep on the floor. This was a place filled with despair and many escape plots would be hatched. Most of these plans were unsuccessful until one fateful night in February 1864 when 109 men crawled to freedom through a narrow tunnel that teams of prisoners had been working on for weeks. Author Joseph Wheelan has chronicled these harrowing events for us in his terrific new 2010 book "Libby Prison Breakout: The Daring Escape from the Notorious Civil War Prison". It reads like a work of fiction but "Libby Prison Breakout" reveals in incredible detail this little known aspect of the Civil War that has largely been lost over the past 150 years. I simply could not put this one down.Anyone who has even a casual interest in the Civil War knows about Andersonville prison in southwest Georgia. But oddly enough I had never even heard of Libby Prison. Evidently very little has been written about it. I only became interested when my 92 year old mother mentioned that her father had told her on several occasions that a member of the family had been imprisoned there. As it turns out I discovered that Libby Prison actually preceded Andersonville and was primarily used to incarcerate captured Union officers. Union soldiers were imprisoned a just short distance away in Richmond at a place called Belle Isle. History records that conditions in both places were absolutely atrocious. In "Libby Prison Breakout" Joseph Wheelan paints a rather vivid picture of the circumstances that led to this extremely unfortunate situation. Earlier in the Civil War prisoner exchanges were conducted on a fairly regular basis. However; for a variety of reasons these transactions were largely eliminated as the conflict wore on placing even greater stress on the South's already scarce resources. At the same time the success of the Union Army's strategy to cut off the supply lines to the South had the undesired effect of leaving Confederate officials with little choice but to cut the rations to their prisoners. When you understand that the Confederacy was having a very difficult time just feeding its own troops you begin to comprehend why conditions in these prisons were so deplorable. It simply was not nor could it be a priority for them.The second half of the book focuses on the planning and execution of the actual breakout. Here you will meet the mastermind of the operation Colonel Thomas Ellwood Rose and a number of his co-conspirators. This was a tenacious group that overcame numerous obstacles and setbacks before they finally succeeded. Joseph Wheelan describes the entire operation in excruciating detail. You will also be introduced to some of the key Union sympathizers in Richmond during this time; most notably Elizabeth Van Lew; a Richmond socialite who risked everything and provided invaluable assistance to the Union cause. I found "Libby Prison Breakout: The Daring Escape from the Notorious Civil War Prison" to be an extremely well written and meticulously researched volume. I believe the book to be a very important addition to the literature on the American Civil War. Very highly recommended!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Starts slowly and then picks up to become a great action/adventure bookBy CarrieGreat book about something I knew absolutely nothing about. I am not a huge Civil War buff; but I do enjoy historical non-fiction. And this particular historical non-fiction book reads like fiction. It does start out a little slow with its brief discussion of Richmond's history and details of some of the key Confederate and Union players; but I think without this background; the book would be incomplete. The book starts to pick up steam fairly quickly and then starts to read like a good action/adventure novel. The conditions in the prison were deplorable; and the author does a really good job describing these conditions (almost too good - people who are squeamish about rodents should not read this book). The prisoners who hatched the escape plan failed so many times before they finally hit upon a winning solution; and it really is kind of incredible that they still had the will to persist.Having seen the movie "The Great Escape" (about WWII prisoners of war trying to escape a German war prisoner camp); I was surprised to find many parallels to this particular story. If you liked that movie; you will like this book and will find that the prisoners in this book encountered many of the same issues that befell the escapees in "The Great Escape."4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Unique perspectiveBy Dave SchwinghammerLIBBY PRISON BREAKOUT may remind you somewhat of the 2010 political bickering between the two major parties. The North accused the South of deliberately mistreating its prisoners; The Confederated denied it. The North refused to exchange prisoners because the 30;000 soldiers who surrendered at Vicksburg returned to action and because the Rebel prisoners were much more capable of returning to action. Confederates also refused to trade black prisoners and white officers who led them into battle.Probably the most remarkable characters in the book are Colonel Thomas E. Rose; a former Pennsylvania schoolteacher; who led four separate efforts to dig the prisoners' way out of Libby Prison. Rose was relentless when everyone else was willing to give up. He did most of the digging himself when the last effort neared fruition. The other major character was Elizabeth Van Lew; a union spy who managed to plant a union sympathizer into Libby Prison who ran the head count and conveniently looked the other way when some of the prisoners were missing because they were digging. She also carried on a constant communication with Grant using a cipher code.The most exciting part of the book is author Joseph Wheelan's account of the prisoners attempt to reach union lines after their escape. Wheelan also provides a brief epilogue about what happened to the various characters after the war and a picture section. With so many Civil War books out there; this one provides a unique perspective about a little known subject.