he could
not budge him. Rose was gasping for breath and rapidly getting fainter,
but even in this fearful strait he refrained from an outcry that would
certainly alarm the guards just outside the door. Hamilton saw that
without speedy relief his comrade must soon smother. He dashed through
the long, dark room up the stairway, over the forms of several hundred
men, and disregarding consequences and savage curses in the dark and
crowded room, he trampled upon arms, legs, faces, and stomachs, leaving
riot and blasphemy in his track among the rudely awakened and now
furious lodgers of the Chickamauga room. He sought the sleeping-place of
Major George H. Fitzsimmons, but he was missing. He, however, found
Lieutenant F.F. Bennett, of the 18th Regulars (since a major in the 9th
United States Cavalry), to whom he told the trouble in a few hasty
words. Both men fairly flew across the room, dashed down the stairs,
and by their united efforts Rose, half dead and quite speechless, was
drawn up from the fearful trap.

Hamilton managed slightly to increase the size of the hole and provide
against a repetition of the accident just narrated, and all being now
ready, the two men entered eagerly upon the work before them. They
appropriated one of the wooden spittoons of the prison, and to each side
attached a piece of clothes-line which they had been permitted to have
to dry clothes on. Several bits of candle and the larger of the two
chisels were also taken to the operating-cellar. They kept this secret
well, and worked alone for many nights. In fact, they would have so
continued, but they found that after digging about four feet their
candle would go out in the vitiated air. Rose did the digging, and
Hamilton fanned air into him with his hat: even then he had to emerge
into the cellar every few minutes to breathe. Rose could dig, but needed
the light and air; and Hamilton could not fan, and drag out and deposit
the excavated earth, and meantime keep a lookout. In fact, it was
demonstrated that there was slim chance of succeeding without more
assistance, and it was decided to organize a party large enough for
effective work by reliefs. As a preliminary step, and to afford the
means of more rapid communication with the cellar from the fireplace
opening, the long rope obtained from Colonel White was formed by
Hamilton into a rope-ladder with convenient wooden rungs. This
alteration considerably increased its bulk, and added to Rose's
dif