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By Root 980 0

for before the war. Food shortages, inflated prices, and our depreciating currency had affected all of us, rich and poor. Sally confided that her father had invested heavily in Confederate bonds to support the war effort; that production in his flour mills had plummeted after Virginia’s grain-growing regions had fallen to the enemy; and that he was now worrying about his finances for the first time in his life. Neither Sally nor I wore new dresses. They cost more than three times what they had before the war. Instead, we had carefully disassembled our worn dresses, then turned, cut, and re-sewed each piece so that frayed hems and threadbare collars wouldn’t show.

In early winter, a new fear rocked the city when we were struck by an outbreak of smallpox. Doctors quarantined the victims in a hospital on the outskirts of town or in homes displaying a white flag in their windows, but no one escaped the dread of contracting the disease. Rumors raged that our enemies had purposefully sent it, but I saw it as yet another plague inflicted on us by our own hardness of heart. Hadn’t we already seen plagues of darkness and famine and rivers of blood?

Illness struck the army camps as well, with dysentery, typhoid, diphtheria, and pneumonia claiming hundreds of soldiers who had successfully dodged bullets and Minie balls. Everyone in camp is coughing, Charles wrote. The Yankees can probably hear us clear across the Rappahannock.

On New Year’s Day, 1863, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation officially granted all of the slaves in all of the Confederate states their freedom. But across the South, nothing changed for the Negroes as the war plodded on. I decided that helping Robert escape was the least I could do to win freedom for my slaves.

On a cold January morning, Eli and I set out to explore the fenced yard east of Libby Prison, the best potential exit site for Robert’s tunnel. We agreed that I would go inside Kerr’s Warehouse, which faced Cary Street, while Eli snooped around in the vacant lot adjacent to it. We parked the carriage across from the prison and walked back to the warehouse so that I could pace the lot’s width; I found out Robert would have to dig a tunnel thirtythree paces long.

I left Eli outside and stepped through the warehouse door into a tiny, square office. The clerk seated at a desk inside the door looked tired and ill and at least seventy-five years old. Good manners required him to stand in a woman’s presence, so I scanned the small office as he struggled to his feet.

“I’d like to speak to Mr. Gallagher, please,” I told him, fabricating a name.

“Who? Gallagher?” he repeated. “There’s no one here by that name.”

I had hoped there would be a window overlooking the backyard, but the only window faced the street. The door leading into the rest of the warehouse was closed.

“I was told Mr. Gallagher was the manager here,” I said.

“You were told wrong. I’m the manager. Name’s Kerr, like the sign says. Maybe I can help you.”

“I don’t think so. I need to see Mr. Gallagher on personal business. It concerns his sister. Is it possible that he worked here before the war? Maybe someone else might know where I can reach him.” If Mr. Kerr went into the back to check, perhaps I could catch a glimpse through the open door. But he didn’t move. His weary, unfriendly expression didn’t change, either.

“Never has been anyone here by that name. I’ve worked here fifty-two years. I would know.”

“Oh dear. I wonder if I have the wrong warehouse?” I tried to act flustered, digging around in my reticule as if searching for something, but I was really stalling to give Eli more time outside. “Now, where did I put that address? There isn’t another Kerr’s Warehouse in Richmond, is there?”

“Not that I know of.”

He sounded irritated. I delayed as long as I dared, painstakingly removing my gloves, searching my coat pockets, and going through the contents of my reticule again. When Mr. Kerr looked as though he might throw me out the door, I thanked him for his trouble. “I’m very sorry to have bothered you.”

Eli hurried