r their special
duty the guarding of the prison, they would not be eager to burden
themselves with the duty of molesting persons seen in the vicinity
outside of their jurisdiction, provided, of course, that the retreating
forms--many of which they must certainly see--were not recognized as
Yankees. All others they might properly leave for the challenge and
usual examination of the provost guard who patrolled the streets of
Richmond.

The wall of that east cellar had to be broken in three places before a
place was found where the earth was firm enough to support a tunnel. The
two men worked on with stubborn patience, but their progress was
painfully slow. Rose dug assiduously, and Hamilton alternately fanned
air to his comrade and dragged out and hid the excavated dirt, but the
old difficulty confronted him. The candle would not burn, the air could
not be fanned fast enough with a hat, and the dirt hidden, without
better contrivances or additional help.

Rose now reassembled the party, and selected from them a number who were
willing to renew the attempt.[12] Against the east wall stood a series
of stone fenders abutting inward, and these, being at uniform intervals
of about twenty feet, cast deep shadows that fell toward the prison
front. In one of these dark recesses the wall was pierced, well up
toward the Carey street end. The earth here has very densely compressed
sand, that offered a strong resistance to the broad-bladed chisel, which
was their only effective implement, and it was clear that a long turn of
hard work must be done to penetrate under the fifty-foot lot to the
objective point. The lower part of the tunnel was about six inches above
the level of the cellar floor, and its top about two and a half feet.
Absolute accuracy was of course impossible, either in giving the hole a
perfectly horizontal direction or in preserving uniform dimensions; but
a fair level was preserved, and the average diameter of the tunnel was a
little over two feet. Usually one man would dig, and fill the spittoon
with earth; upon the signal of a gentle pull, an assistant would drag
the load into the cellar by the clothes-lines fastened to each side of
this box and then hide it under the straw; a third constantly fanned air
into the tunnel with a rubber blanket stretched across a frame, the
invention of the ingenious Hamilton; a fourth would give occasional
relief to the last two; while a fifth would keep a lookout.

[Footnote 12: