Regimental flag fragment sent home by 1st Sgt. Geo. H.
Fisher. Captured at Gettysburg, Sgt. Fisher would be confined
at Libby Prison with his Colonel.
Captured at the Battle of Gettysburg where the
Regimental flag was torn up to prevent its being
taken by the Confederates, Col. Tilden would be
confined in Confederate prison at Macon, Georgia
and at Columbia, South Carolina before being moved
to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. The
tenacious Yankee Colonel would escape Libby on
February 9, 1864.
This Libby Prison photo was found among Col. Tilden’s personal things. It is by Confederate Richmond photographer Charles R. Rees. The rectangular sign at the corner of the building reads L. LIBBY & SON, SHIP CHANDLERS from which the prison was named. Oddly enough Capt. Luther Libby was a Maine native who established the chandlery in Richmond in 1854. Early in the war his buildings were taken over for use as the prison that would carry the Libby name. Son George W. Libby would serve in the Confederate army. A tunnel exodus from this place of just over one hundred Yankee prisoners with nearly half the number quickly re-captured has been set in history as one of the most daring and successful of POW escapes.
