Prison Breaks

[gary]

Anybody have any info on which Civil War Prisons were the most difficult to escape from?

[unionblue]

Gary,

I would have to say one of the toughest prisons to escape from the Union side would have to be the one located in Ohio at Lake Erie, Johnston's Island. There were escapes, but the extreme cold in the winter and the water hazard at ALL times made this one very tough nut to crack. There is a great video out about it called Rebel Fire and Yankee Ice, and is well worth your look if you can get it.

Unionblue

[johan_steele]

IIRC Rock Island was a particularly difficult escape partly beacuse it was on an island, and while the river there waqs quite shallow at the time the prisoners didn't know that.

There is another Union prison, that had a great white shark in the moat, he was nicknamed the "Provost Marshall" and the guards would regularly feed him chickens so he'd stay around. If that isn't incentive NOT to try and swinm the moat than nothing is.

[gary]

Gee, that sounds as bad as the fabled one fin shark at Alcatraz. The guards would tell the convicts that they caught him, chopped off one fin and the shark was kept in a holding pattern around The Rock. Kinda discouraged escapes.