From the New York Times, 2/15/1864

THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

INTERESTING NEWS FROM RICHMOND.
Reported Escape of One Hundred and Nine Union Officers.

WASHINGTON, Sunday, Feb. 14.

A gentleman who, to-night, arrived from the Army of the Potomac, saw, before he left there, a Richmond paper of Thursday, found on the person of a deserter who came into our lines, in which appears an article stating that one hundred and nine officers have escaped from the Libby prison, by digging a tunnel under the street for that purpose. It is supposed the prisoners had been engaged upon the work for at least a month. They were missed at roll-call, and forthwith troops were dispatched in various directions to capture them. Four were overtaken on the Williamsburg and Hanover Court-House road. The other, it is suspected, were secreted in the neighborhood in Richmond. The guards were arrested on the belief that they were in collusion with the prisoners, but were afterward released, the subterranean mode of escape having become known. The paper says that NEAL DOW was not among the runaways, but was probably waiting to accompany the next batch.

The deserter above referred to says a large number of his regiment, the Fourteenth Louisiana, are barefoot, and that the daily ration consists of a quarter of a pound of meat and one pint of meal.

There have been no active military movements in our army for a week past.

ANOTHER REPORT.

Capt. John F. Porter, of the Fourteenth New York Cavalry, arrived here to-day overland from Richmond, having escaped two weeks ago from Libby Prison. He left the prison in a rebel uniform, having secured an abandoned one, and remained nine days in Richmond without exciting suspicion. Among the officers recently escaped from Libby Prison are Colonel STREIGHT, Colonel TIPPEN, Major JOHN HENRY and Colonel RODGERS; but it is not known yet whether they have succeeded in getting clear of the rebel dominions. The rations issued to the officers in the prison consisted of a quart of rice to sixteen men every eight days, a small piece of corn bread every day to each, about four ounces of very poor fresh meat once a day, and salt and vinegar very rarely.

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