. Famous adventures and prison escapes of the civil war . e designated the east, middle, and west cel-lars. Except in the lofts known as Streights room and Milroys room, which were occupied by theearliest inmates of Libby in 1863, there was no fur-niture in the building, and only a few of the earlycomers possessed such a luxury as an old army blanketor a knife, cup, and tin plate. As a rule, the prisoner,by the time he reached Libby, found himself devoidof earthly goods save the meager and dust-begrimedsummer garb in which he had made his unluckycampaign. At night the six large lofts presented
. Famous adventures and prison escapes of the civil war . e designated the east, middle, and west cel-lars. Except in the lofts known as Streights room and Milroys room, which were occupied by theearliest inmates of Libby in 1863, there was no fur-niture in the building, and only a few of the earlycomers possessed such a luxury as an old army blanketor a knife, cup, and tin plate. As a rule, the prisoner,by the time he reached Libby, found himself devoidof earthly goods save the meager and dust-begrimedsummer garb in which he had made his unluckycampaign. At night the six large lofts presented strangewar-pictures, over which a single tallow candle weptcopious and greasy tears that ran down over the petri-fied loaf of corn-broad, Bordens condensed-milk can, COLONEL roses TUNNEL AT LIBBY PRISON 187 or bottle in which it was set. The candle flickeredon until taps, when the guards, with unconsciousirony shouted, Lights out!—at which signal itusually disappeared amid a shower of boots and suchother missiles as were at hand. The sleepers covered. , UBKY & SON the six floors, lying in ranks, head to head and foot tofoot, like prostrate lines of battle. For the generalgood, and to preserve something like military preci-sion, these ranks (especially when cold weather com-pelled them to lie close for better warmth) weresubdivided into convenient squads under charge of acaptain, who was invested with authority to seethat every man lay spoon fashion. No consideration of j)ersonal convenience was per-mitted to interfere with the general comfort of the squad. Thus, when the hard floor could no longer beendured on the right side,—especially by the thin men,— the captain gave the command, Attention, SquadNumber Four! Prepare to spoon! One—two—spoon!And the whole squad flopped over on the left side. 188 ADVENTURES AND ESCAPES IN THE CIVIL WAR The first floor on the west of the building was usedby the Confederates as an office and for sleeping-quar-ters for the prison offic
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