Exodus from the county Jail,
--On repairing to the county jail yesterday morning, the custodian of that edifice,
Mr. Thos. A. Staples, discovered, to his very great surprise and mortification, that nearly half of his customers had, during the night, succeeded in breaking the lock off the front door and making good their escape.
The exodus, so the remaining prisoners say, was accomplished about 9 o'clock Tuesday, after the jailor had locked up for the night and everything got quiet.
Arrangements for an escape could only have been perfected on the outside, it being impossible for those who were inside to have affected the lock by any exertions they were capable of making.
The prisoners account for outside aid by saying that one of their number wrapped something about his head and permitted his comrades to cover him up in the ash pile in the corner of the yard, that after the jailor locked all up, as he supposed, and retired, the fellow broke his cerements and commenced operations.--The outer lock being broken, the inner ones were soon conquered.
After the parties were all assembled for flight, they obtained the means of reaching the top of the outer wall by removing the steps inside of the jail.
The following is a list and description of the men who escaped.
Jas. M. Seeds, (Ohioan,) committed as a spy; about 45 years old; entirely bald; wears a wig 5 feet 8 inches high.
Benj. Geminy, from
Baltimore, but a native of
Virginia; about 25 years old; 5 feet 11 inches high, black hair and whiskers, and blemish in the right eye.
O. C. Stanton, about 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches high, light hair, blue eyes, and a light moustache.
Hails from the
North.
Geo. W. Twells, late
Lieutenant in the
McCulloch Rangers, about 28 years old, 6 feet 1 inch high, large whiskers, and very delicate.
Samuel Tatem, (Baltimorean,) 21 years old, 5 feet 10 inches high, light hair and eyes.
George Peacher, about 45 years old, 6 feet high, long black hair, and face pock marked.
Julius Roth, (
German,) stout built about 6 feet high, dark hair and whiskers, about 25 years old.
Price Lewis, (Englishman,) 22 or 23 years old, 6 feet high, and is a noted Abolitionist; dark hair and whiskers.
Thomas Wilson, a soldier, about twenty-one years of age, six feet high, and black hair and eyes.
Robert Wood, a native of
Hampton, Va., six feet high, dark visaged, black hair and eyes, and walks me, twenty-six years old.
Seeds,
Lewis,
Stanton and Twells are considered very important prisoners.
After the escape was known yesterday, two detachments of Confederate cavalry were armed at the
State Ordnance Department, corner of 7th and Cary streets, and started in pursuit of the fugitives, none of whom, so far as we are advised, were apprehended up to sundown yesterday evening, though there can be hardly a doubt but that all of them will be caught in a few days, so complete and thorough is police surveillance exercised over all suspicious parties.
