Last updated: November 7, 2023
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An Escape Attempt at Fort Warren
Civil War Times Illustrated
A Way Out
While those imprisoned at Fort Warren on Georges Island from 1861-1866 received better treatment than those elsewhere, that does not mean escape attempts never occurred. Yet, despite some valiant efforts, only a few prisoners made it off the island. No one ever successfully escaped Fort Warren, and each escapee wound up recaptured and back on the island.
One of the most intricate escape attempts occurred in the summer of 1863, during the height of the US Civil War. That June the United States Navy captured CSS Atlanta. CSS Tacony met the same fate shortly after.[1] Captured and imprisoned, many of the former soldiers found themselves at Fort Warren. Among them were Captain Joseph W. Alexander, Lieutenant Charles W. "Savez" Read, Lieutenant of Marines James Thurston, and Reed Sanders. Placed together in the same casemate, the prisoners frequently thought up escape plans. Alexander later remembered:
Many plans were suggested and discussed, but none seemed feasible. Indeed, situated as we were on an island, and strictly guarded day and night, with sentinels stationed in front of our doors, confined within solid masonry constructed to resist the shot of the heaviest guns, it seemed impossible to escape; and yet the escape was easily accomplished. [2]
One day, the prisoners noticed musketry loopholes that led to an outer wall. The size of this hole was between six to eight feet high, and two to three feet wide on the inside. It occurred to Alexander that if he turned his head, and looked over his shoulder, he could squeeze through with some difficulty. Alexander and his co-conspirators waited for a dark night before attempting a trial run of the escape.
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The Escape
When the night came, they snuck out of their casemates. Using a rope, they dropped into the dry ditch roughly fifteen feet below. They crossed over the cover face and through the grass before making it to the seawall. Once there, they noticed sentinels on duty. They watched the guard's routine and eventually slipped past them and beyond the seawall. High winds and rough seas met them, so together they decided to wait for a better night.
On the night of the second attempted escape, Lieutenant Read told Thomas Sherman and J. N. Pryde that he wanted them to sneak out before the others and swim over to nearby Lovells Island to secure a boat. Read then wanted them to return with the boat a safe distance from the island in order to pick the others up. This way, they all did not have to swim that far.The two men agreed to Read’s plan and set off into the night.
After waiting for some time without any sign of Sherman or Pryde, Alexander and Thurston decided they would swim to retrieve a boat themselves and return for Read and Sanders, the final two men. As they escaped, they dragged a large pine board target into the water with them. One sentry–noticing the target was missing–looked over the edge of the seawall and lowered his bayonet down towards the water, believing he saw something in the shadows. The bayonet slowly came to a rest on Read’s chest, but he never moved.
The soldier removed his bayonet and commented that he did not want to stick it in salt water, concluding that "spirits had taken [the target] away." It is believed that Alexander and Thurston swam to Lovells Island, which is 1500 feet from Georges Island and separated by the Narrows Channel.[3] Once there, they located a small fishing boat and used that to return to Georges Island. When they returned, Read and Sanders were nowhere to be found. Since the dawn was quickly approaching, Alexander and Thurston decided to set off on their own.
Unbeknownst to them, their co-conspirators Read and Sanders had been caught. Made aware of the news the following morning, Col. Dimick issued a roll call. He then discovered that four men were missing: Read, Sherman, Alexander, and Thurston. Dimick asked a steamer heading to Boston to notify the Boston Chief of Police and the Army’s Federal Provost Marshall. [4]
Return to Fort Warren
Alexander and Thurston sailed for a day with no provisions, eventually making it to Rye Beach, New Hampshire, where they came across a local man. They told him they hailed from Portsmouth, and everything they owned had blown overboard. Sympathetic, the man returned with clothes, tobacco, cherry brandy, and food. They told the man they planned to spend the evening in town, but instead quickly sailed off for Eastport, Maine.
News of the escape reached Portland, Maine, before the runaways. Revenue Cutter Dobbin received orders to search for the two missing men. Deemed suspicious upon their arrival into Portland, Dobbin approached their vessel and began asking questions. They almost talked their way out of recapture, but someone suggested they be searched and found Confederate money on them. Turned over to the local US Marshall, they waited in the city jail. They stayed for about a month before being returned to Fort Warren.
Upon their return, Alexander and Thurston discovered that Sanders and Read had been captured while trying to return to their case mate and had been placed in close confinement. No one ever heard from Sherman and Pryde again. It is believed they drowned, although rumors swirled that they had reached the Confederacy. Alexander and Thurston refused to tell others not to escape and continued plotting escapes of their own until their exchange several months later.[5]
Footnotes:
[1] Jay Schmidt, Fort Warren: New England’s Most Historic Civil War Site, (Amherst, NH: UBT Press, 2003), 63-71.
[2] Capt. J.L. Alexander, "How We Escaped Fort Warren," The New England Magazine (1892-1893), accessed April 10, 2023, 209.
[3] Alexander "How We Escaped Fort Warren," 208-213.
[4] Schmidt, Fort Warren: New England’s Most Historic Civil War Site, 63-71.
[5] Alexander "How We Escaped Fort Warren," 2018-213; Schmidt, Fort Warren: New England’s Most Historic Civil War Site, 63-71.