"
Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in a casemate of Fortress Monroe, the
embrasure of which was closed with a heavy iron grating. The two doors
which communicated with the gunner's room were closed with heavy double
shutters fastened with crossbars and padlocks. The side openings were
sealed with fresh masonry.
Two sentinels with loaded muskets paced the floor without a moment's
pause day or night. Two other sentinels and a commissioned officer
occupied the gunner's room, the door and window of which were securely
fastened. Sentinels were stationed on the parapet overhead whose steady
tramp day and night made sleep impossible.
The embrasure opened on the big ditch which surrounds the fort--sixty
feet wide and ten feet deep in salt water. Beyond the ditch, on the
glacis, was a double line of sentinels and in the casemate rooms on
either side of his prison were quartered that part of the guard which
was not on post.
To render rest or comfort impossible a lighted lamp was placed within
three feet of the prisoner's eyes and kept burning brightly all night.
His jailer knew he had but one eye whose sight remained and that he was
a chronic sufferer from neuralgia.
His escape from Fortress Monroe was a physical impossibility without one
of the extraordinary precautions taken.
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