Escape Tunnels

At this end of the prison, the ground is pocked with deep holes that were either tunnels or wells. Overcrowding hid the digging, and beneath a sea of tattered shelters prisoners worked undetected with mess plates, spoons, and canteen halves. Although it is tempting to treat every excavation as an escape tunnel, many may have been wells, because with the camp stream lethally polluted, the search for fresh water was as urgent as the need to escape. John L. Ransom of the 9th Michigan Cavalry recalled that on April 26, 1864, just as it was coming light in the east, dogs came after the escapees, then hounds caught up and began smelling them, and soon five mounted rebels arrived and laughed that they had expected to get away. Some tunnels emerged beyond the stockade walls, but nearly all who tunneled free were recaptured. Most of Andersonville's approximately 300 successful escapees got past the guards while on work details outside the stockade.

Andersonville, Georgia · United States