THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
the guard or officer of the day, and that night, December 25, 1864, we began what seemed to be a hopeless task. After taps, every night for a week, Lieutenant Funk would take up his position on my bunk, and if anything moved he notified us by knocking on the floor with his heels. We would then stop work until he gave the signal all was well. We worked on for one week, getting out but few bricks. We finally concluded to take into our confidence some help, so we organized a working party of Capt. W. W. Griffin, 1st Maryland Battery, C. S. A.; Captain Kent, Georgia; Lieutenant W. H. Chew, Georgia; Lieut. Hugh Dunlap, Tennessee; Lieut. W. W. George, Virginia; and Capt. Ed Chambers, Alabama, with Prewitt and myself. One night a fellow named Gillispie caught Prewitt coming out of the trapdoor, so we took him in with us to keep him quiet. Every night we would go down in pairs to work on the wall. Our only tools were the case knife, made into a saw, and the eighteen-inch fire poker. We worked waist-
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