In view of the upcoming
Memorial Day weekend, I offer several works of the prison escape genre weighted towards the American Civil War, but also with a nod to the Great War.
John Azor Kellogg, Capture and Escape (1908)
A narrative of army and prison life
http://archive.org/details/captureescape00kellrich
Preface
Captain Kellogg participated in the battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, and Gettysburg. It was during the great Fight in the Wilderness, while the Iron Brigade was of the Army of the Potomac, that our author was captured (May 5, 1864) by Confederates, while he was doing skirmish duty on special detail. Imprisoned successively at Lynchburg and Danville (Virginia), Macon (Georgia), and Charleston (South Carolina), he escaped on October 5....
The story of his depressing experiences in Confederate prisons, and of his curious adventures while a fugitive after the escape, is told in the present volume. A man of acute intellect, resourceful, and courageous in an unusual degree, Captain Kellogg's narrative is a document of great human interest. His literary style is as vivid as his experiences were thrilling, and the modest tale is certain to hold the attention of the most jaded reader of war-time reminiscences. The Commission considers itself fortunate in being able to include in this series so admirable a paper.
While Captain Kellogg was absent in captivity, or before his safe return to the Union lines at Calhoun, Georgia (October 26), he was twice promoted: September 1, to be Major of his regiment; October 19, to be its Lieutenant-Colonel. Soon after assuming the last-named office (November), he was made Colonel of the regiment. Being assigned to the command of the Iron Brigade in February, 1865, he led that redoubtable organization in the battles of Hatcher's Run, Boydon Plank Road, Gravel Run, Five Forks, High Bridge, and Appomattox. On the 9th of April he was deservedly brevetted brigadier-general, "for highly meritorious service during the campaign terminating with the surrender of the insurgent army under General Robert E. Lee," and on July 14 following was mustered out....
Willard W. Glazier, The Capture, the Prison Pen, and the Escape (1870)
Giving a complete history of prison life in the South
http://archive.org/details/captureprisonpen00glaz
http://archive.org/details/captureprisonpen00glazrich
Preface
It has been my aim in the preparation of these pages, to give a plain, unvarnished narrative of facts and incidents of Prison Life, as they occurred under my own observation during an experience of fourteen months, in various Southern Prisons.
They do not pretend to give a complete history of that eventful period — only a part. Others are contributing sketches for the dark picture, which, at the best, can but poorly illustrate the fearful atrocities of our brutal keepers.
The multiplied woes of the battle-field, and the sufferings of the sick and wounded in hospitals which the Federal Government has established, might almost be considered the enjoyments of Paradise, when compared with the heart-rending and prolonged agonies of Captives in Rebel Stockades.
Sad and painful as it seems in the former case, there are a great variety of mitigating circumstances which tend to soothe the feelings as we contemplate them. Their sufferings are of comparatively short duration, surrounded as they are by those who never tire in their efforts to provide comfort and relief. Members of the numerous humane societies can visit them and attend to their wants; but in the latter case they have passed the boundary which bars them from all these things....
W.H. Newlin, An Account of the Escape of Six Federal Soldiers from Prison at Danville, Va. (1870)
Their travels by night through the enemy's country to the Union pickets at Gauley bridge, West Virginia, in the winter of 1863-64.
http://archive.org/details/accountofescapeo00newl
http://archive.org/details/accountofescapeo01newl
Introduction
In those "stirring times," during the late war, when powder, and ball, and the bayonet were the orders of the day, an escape from prison and a secret, hidden march through the Confederacy, was accounted an exciting, as well as a very lucky event. Even at this day, accounts of such are not stale, but possess a thrilling interest, especially to those who participated in them and to their friends. Our journey over mountain and valley, over hill and dale, and across rivers, branches, and rivulets almost innumerable, was accomplished mostly in the night time.
We had neither map nor compass to guide us. The north star alone served us in shaping our course, and very often it was concealed by ominous clouds. We took many needless steps, and made many needless and weary miles in consequence of lack of knowledge of the country and of the course we were steering. Sometimes the desolate hour of Winter's midnight found us far from the public highway, and almost inextricably involved in the brush and tangled mazes of the forest. At such times, being almost at our wit's end, we would try to advance on a "bee line" until the open country or some road was reached.
At one time, when much bewildered in the shadowy woods, in night time, we began to despair of success. We sat down to contemplate our condition and our cheerless prospect. Had an enemy been approaching us we could have well-nigh welcomed him, so he brought deliverance. At length the stillness and thick darkness of the night made our loneliness oppressive, and we groped on. Soon we found a road, and realized that the "darkest hour is just before day."...
A brief narrative from the Southern side:
Frank H. Rahm, Reminiscences of His Capture and Escape from Prison (1895)
And adventures within the Federal lines by a member of Mosby's command, with a narrative by a C.S. naval officer
http://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofh01rahmf