“Out of the Mouth of Hell:” Civil War Prisons and Escapes.
Price $55 (plus $4 postage). Hardcover, published 2005, McFarland & Co.
This highly acclaimed book examines both Confederate and Federal prisons, a total of 27. Conditions in all were horrible, disease rampant, and the food bad to non-existent. Each chapter features a prison, gives its location, capacity, and description of the facility. Included are true stories of daring escapes and failed attempts. Some plans were shear genius.
Only about 12 prisoners escaped from the Federal prison on Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie . One of those who did was Lt. Colonel John R. Winston from North Carolina. He and his companions made their way across the ice to safety in Canada. They then took a ship to Bermuda, and a blockade runner to Wilmington, then made it home to rejoin their units, a very long journey.
Some of the prisons are famous (Andersonville, Libby, Castle Thunder), while others are scarcely known (Danville, VA; Camp Davidson at Savannah, GA; Rock Island, IL; and Alton Military Prison, Alton, IL, Gratiot Street Prison, St. Louis, MO).
The escape of Confederate cavalry officer, John Hunt Morgan, and a few of his men, from the Ohio State Penintentiary is one of the more interesting stories.
The ability of men to survive in the most horrible conditions, much less escape, is almost unbelievable , as can be seen from some of the stories in this book.
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