- Get him out.

Get him out - Get him some air, get him some air.

(grunting) - I'm going in.

Okay, give me light.

(grunts loudly) (metal tools scraping) (banjo music) - [Narrator] It is the winter of 1863.

And in Richmond's Libby prison Union captives face another day of deprivation.

- [Isaac] None of the castles and dungeons of Europe have a stranger or sadder history than this.

Many a heart has been wrung.

Many a spirit broken.

Many a noble soul has there breathed out its last sigh.

(bugle playing reveille) - [Guard] Get up!

Get up!

Get up, goddamnit!

- It's the third winter of the war.

Richmond is still the capital of the Confederacy, both armies have sort of gone to their winter camps and are doing, more or less, nothing but trying to survive.

- [Guard] Get up, now!

- The Confederate states.

There was widespread deprivation, shortages of food, shortages of material.

No prospect of warmth or medical care through the prison.

- Some of the biggest concerns is gonna be lice.

They'll say that's actually their biggest enemy.

- [Narrator] Richmond is growing restless.

The well-being of the prisoners from the United States Army is the least of the Confederacy's concerns.

- [Guard 2] Everyone.

Good morning.

You know the drill.

- [Narrator] They are just numbers.

- [Guard 2] Let's go.

- [Narrator] Libby prison was built specifically to house Union officers, (guard calling roll) - [Narrator] Men like Captain Andrew G. Hamilton, Captain Isaac N Johnston, and Colonel Thomas Rose Early in the war, both sides exchanged prisoners regularly.

But by this point, these exchanges had virtually ended.

More than a thousand are now crammed into this old warehouse by the James River.

Their imprisonment isn't about individual punishment.

It is about keeping able-bodied men off the battlefield.

- As far as you were concerned, once taken prisoner you were in for the duration of the war.

- [Narrator] Apart from the daily roll calls, captured soldiers are largely left to their own devices.

Reading the firsthand accounts of prisoners like Captain Isaac Johnston, you can be lulled into feeling like they didn't have it so bad, but the truth is that it was horrific.

- Throughout the Civil War era, both sides had to create prisoner camps on the fly, basically on a rush job.

- [Narrator] Nearly 10% of civil war deaths occurred in prisons like this one.

- The way the Confederate states and the United States treated the prisoners of war became a major political issue between the two sides during the war.

These men are starving.

They're dying, they're freezing.

They're being treated inhumanely.

- [Narrator] Care packages sent to Libby's prisoners are treated with suspicion and left inside an old tobacco shed, cutting off a vital link to the outside.

- It's just this grinding sense of day-to-day nothingness.

And you can imagine what that did to the imagination of the prisoners in Libby.

- [Isaac] I know something of battle.

I am familiar with the long and weary march, the want of food and thirst.

I've been stretched, almost lifeless.

Months of sad and weary, hopeless captivity.

Should I be a prisoner in the hands of the foe?

Lie helpless amongst the dying?

Or should I escape?

- Hello?

Hello!

- Major Hamilton.

- Colonel Rose?

Colonel Rose.

You came in here with the, the Chickamauga prisoners?

- 77th PA. Rebs rolled our flank.

- I was captured at Jonesborough, Tennessee.

What brings you down here, Colonel?

- [Narrator] It isn't uncommon for guards to plant spies among the prisoners.

So they need to be careful.

- So Colonel Rose bumps into AG Hamilton and realized that they needed to pair up.

- I estimate the river's about 45 feet that way.

- Yeah, I think that sewer line is, is probably about 10 feet down, running along Canal Street.

- You think we can do it?

- I think we can.

I built homes back before the war, so I think I can handle this.

- Do you have some men you can trust?

- Got a few men - [Narrator] Rose and Hamilton are going to attempt the impossible; escape from Libby Prison.

(guard calling roll) - [Isaac] Captain Hamilton's plan had been adopted.

A solemn pledge was taken to reveal it to none other.

- ... they're not letting of those packages... - If word got out, and the prison population in general knew about this, that could endanger the entire mission, and this could all come to naught.

- [Narrator] The prisoners sleep on the upper floors and have access to a kitchen on the lower floor, between a makeshift hospital and a room occupied by the prison's rebel commanders On one side of the cellar the quarters for captive African Americans; on the other, a storage area that has been sealed off from the upper floors.

And in between, the notorious dungeon where guards send prisoners when they want to deliver a strong message.

And the entire prison is guarded by sentries and dogs.

What Rose and Hamilton understood immediately is that the only way out of Libby will be to dig a tunnel out of the east cellar.

But first, they must get into the east cellar undetected.

The noise coming from the nightly gathering in the kitchen provides the cover they need.

Hamilton, a house builder by trade, discovers a solution, but he only has a simple pocket knife to execute it.

- [Gorman] So the prisoners will devise rather ingenious strategums of going through a fireplace and then replacing the bricks as they went back into the prison.

- We got it.

- It looked like a regular fireplace, but it was really the secret entrance to the cellar.

- All right, I'm going in.

- Okay.

- [Narrator] After 15 nights of work, Hamilton and Rose make it to the basement where they are met with another surprise.

- Rats.

Thousands of rats.

You start to feel something, and hear something, scurrying around on the floor.

- Maybe, if ... - Maybe this wall.

- River's over this way, right?

- [Isaac] The plan was to dig down and pass under the foundation.

Then, change the direction and work parallel with the wall to a large sewer that passes down the canal street.

And from there, make our escape.

- [Narrator] It's a dangerous plan.

Even if they could make it outside the prison, they would still need to negotiate crowded city streets, rebel encampments, and vast swaths of nearby swampland.

- How we gonna do it?

- [Graham] They did didn't have any tools for tunneling.

- Well, we're gonna need a chisel to get through all that foundation.

- And so they would sneak off things like chisels, pen knives, case knives pocket knives that they used to dig through.

- Spittoons, for the dirt.

We'll carry it out that way.

- They would grab a spittoon or a cuspidor - We need rope.

- We're gonna need a lot of rope - Probably around 200 or so feet.

- Hurry it up.

- Need to get some more guys on this.

(guard calling roll) (suspenseful music) - One set chisels.

- One set chisels.

- Oh!

- Welcome to rat hell.

- [Narrator] The tunneling team grows to include JF Gallagher and a handful of others.

They are monitored closely by prison clerk, Erastus Ross.

With this many enemy soldiers held so close to the capital, the Confederates could not let their guard down.

- Basically his main job was accountability.

How many prisoners do we have?

- [Narrator] If Ross' count is off, the whole prison would go into lockdown, and what little autonomy the prisoners maintained could be lost.

- We hit water!

The tunnel's not gonna work!

- [Narrator] They dug too deep.

Water from a nearby canal begins to seep in.

- [Isaac] Our first plan of escape being thwarted, no time was lost in devising another.

A second effort was made passin' through the outer wall to the large sewer in front.

(tapping sound) - Private!

Get over here.

You hear that?

Listen.

- Might just be a big rat.

- Another attempt was to escape by the sewer leading from the kitchen - Right here, go.

(hollow thunking) - Bad news!

Bad news, it's solid oak!

(grunts) It's too thick!

(bugle plays reveille) - [Narrator] Three attempts, three failures.

- [Guard] Roll call, wake up!

- [Narrator] But Rose isn't about to give up.

He devises an even more audacious plan.

- Thank you, gentlemen.

You are dismissed.

- Ross, I need to talk to you about the boxes.

Our men are hungry.

- Yes.

- May we at least retrieve the food from them?

I know Gallagher can pick it up.

That's all we need.

- [Narrator] Rose has been eyeing the tobacco shed on the east side of the prison where unopened care packages have been hidden away.

- My hands are tied.

- You see how many hungry men I have here?

- Yes I do, but we got, we've got sweet potatoes.... - [Narrator] Erastus Ross, the prison clerk, grants permission for one of Rose's men to retrieve a package from the shed.

- Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven.... - [Isaac] Captain Gallagher came to the conclusion that 52 or 53 feet would bring us to the shed.

- (whispers) 53 - Keep movin'!

- [Narrator] 38 days after they first begin chipping away at Libby's brickwork, the team begins their next escape attempt.

- What'd you find out, Gallagher?

- I walked it out.

It's about 53 feet.

- [Narrator] It's the longest, most daring tunnel yet.

They are digging blind.

They won't know if they've reached the shed until they break through the surface.

- We'll work in three teams of five, but we don't stop until we come out from under that tobacco shed.

- I have another 10 feet.

Should be it.

Take it down to the crew tonight.

- Everything that happens in that hole, I need to know about.

- Aye.

(grunts) - All right everybody, midday roll.

Get up, into formation.

- Got spittoons, sendin' back.

- Sendin' back.

(guard calling roll) - [Guard and Prisoners] Three, here, four, here, five, here.

- [Isaac] After penetratin' some distance the task became very painful.

- Air.

- [Isaac] It was impossible to breathe the air of the tunnel for many minutes together.

- Air!

- [Isaac] Four persons were necessary to keep the work movin'.

- All right.

- 56, here, 57, here.

- [Narrator] While the tunnel continues to grow the digging team takes on an increasingly risky strategy.

They dig around the clock.

- Sergeant, we've heard of some attempted escapes.

So I need a named roll call.

- Yes, sir.

- Gallagher.

- Here.

- Jeb.

- Here.

- Ericson.

- Here.

(roll call continues) - Drew Casey - Here.

- Johnston.

Johnston?

Johnston.

Colonel, where is Johnston?

- [Isaac] It was thought best that I should remain down in the cellar 'til the tunnel was completed.

To remain in this cold, dark and loathsome place was most revolting to my feelings.

But the fear of bein' handcuffed and put in the dungeon induced me to stay.

- [Narrator] Ultimately Johnston is marked down as escaped.

There is no going back now.

In response to Johnston's missing roll call, security tightens inside Libby Prison.

The same is happening around Richmond.

The war is not going well for the Confederacy.

- Richmond is still the capital of the Confederacy, the Union Army of the Potomac is still very much interested in Richmond, as are the army of northern Virginia, in defending it.

- Confederate armies still remain in the field and still held the United States armies at bay.

There were newspaper articles in Richmond papers and in Northern newspapers that were arguing over the condition of prisoners in Libby.

The idea was to try to rescue these people because the newspaper reports were so dire about their condition.

- [Narrator] The prisoners aren't allowed outside, but it is clear that messages are getting in and out.

- Most people forget that there was a large and active Union underground.

- Prisoners were able to remain connected to the outside world because, unsurprisingly, there were numerous enslaved people either working nearby or even sometimes working at the camps themselves that would help, on occasion, to provide information, maybe even provide insight on possible avenues to escape.

The war for freedom, the war for patriotism, was always personal for black people in the United States - [Narrator] While the Confederates search for the source of the leaks on the upper floors, they don't realize that information is also being traded between captives in Libby's cellar and the servants and enslaved people passing by the prison day to day.

- What the prisoners discovered was a preexisting system of individuals who were expert at evading the surveillance of white people.

- [Gorman] The risk for black people, free or enslaved, was everything.

Ultimately their lives.

(wind whistles) - [Isaac] The night of the 7th of February came and it was thought that our tunnel was long enough to reach inside of a tobacco shed on the opposite side of the street.

We had our rations already prepared in our haversacks expecting to be going out at 9:00.

(grunts) - (whispers) 53.

53 feet!

(dogs barking) - Hear that?

- Pull me out!

- What's he saying?

- He said pull me out!

(dogs barking) - [Sentry] Somebody calm these damn dogs down.

What the hell are they barkin' at?

- Success?

- No, all is lost.

I made a whole, a small opening on the outside of the shed.

It was within a few feet of the sentinel who was on guard.

They'll soon be here to arrest us.

Go!

Go, hurry!

- Out to roll call!

I'll stay here with Johnston.

(suspenseful music) (heartbeat) - [Narrator] From the windows of the third floor the prisoners watched the sentinels below.

In spite of the commotion, they did not discover the hole and the prisoners quickly worked to cover their tracks with a pair of pants and some carefully placed dirt.

- All right.

Pull me out.

(bugle plays reveille) - [Isaac] The next night the minin' operations were resumed.

(grunts) - Okay.

Okay.

- Godspeed.

- More air!

(suspenseful music builds) I'm in!

I'm in!

(gasping) (suspenseful music) (grunts) I made it.

We made it.

But we're gonna have to wait 'til tomorrow.

It's too late, we can't get everyone out.

- Mr. Rose, I don't know if I can do another night.

- No, I need you to close up the shop.

I need you to close up.

Tomorrow night.

Tomorrow, come on, one more.

- Imagine the tension.

We've done all this work, it's been three months.

Just one more night.

What if we get found out tonight?

(somber music) (bugle plays reveille) - [Guard] Get up!

get up!

Get up, goddamnit.

- [Guard 2] All right, everyone.

Good morning, you know the drill.

Let's go.

Line up.

- [Isaac] The 9th of February was a long day.

And long to be remembered.

Never was my anxiety so great for the setting sun.

- Morning, let's go.

(guard calls roll) - All right.

We leave two at a time, 10 minutes apart, starting at 8:00.

We bring one companion.

- For all our effort, can we get through one more day?

It must have been just terrifying.

- [Isaac] More than once during its long dreary hours, I feared the cup of happiness, now so near our lips, would be rudely dashed away.

- It's 8:00, sir.

Good luck, sir.

- Okay.

- Keep moving guys, come on.

Gentlemen, it's been a journey, but we're not home yet.

Stay in small groups.

When you get to the surface, avoid the sentries.

Godspeed.

Good luck.

Farewell.

- [Isaac] There was a shade of sadness on many a brow for we were about to go forth two by two, to separate.

To meet again, when?

Perhaps, never.

(dog barking) (percussive music) From 8:00 at night to three in the morning, 109 persons thus escaped.

- [Gorman] One of the challenges that the escaped prisoners had was getting out of the city of Richmond.

Many of them had to walk through a crowded downtown thoroughfare to get to the outskirts of the city and move east or north toward the United States army.

- [Narrator] Over the next few hours, word of the tunnel spreads throughout Libby.

Prisoners pour out of the prison and into the frigid winter air.

Some travel through nearby wetlands to avoid rebel soldiers.

Others tap into the Richmond underground, seeking known safe houses in and around the city.

- [Isaac] We were not observed.

And you may be sure we did not linger.

Soon we were out of sight of that hated place.

- You've got this very tangible event happening in the midst of the civil war.

It's not Robert E. Lee did this or Lincoln did that.

This is the everyday man tunneling out of Libby embarrassing the Confederates, and showing them the fight will go on all the way to the end, all the way to freedom.

- [Woman] Those men look like Yankees.

(wind whistling) (banjo music)