Escapes from
Fort Oglethorpe's
War Prison
There are nine documented escape attempts from the War Prison Barracks at Fort Oglethorpe during World War 1. The outcomes included being recaptured, never seen again, or shot to death. These were published in the local newspapers through official releases from the War Prison Barracks commandant's office. The commandant released the descriptions of escaped prisoners so the general public would be on the lookout, and in several cases, did effect their recapture.
Escape #1: August 15-17, 1917
During the summer of 1917, the War Department was building a new and larger prison camp about a half mile northeast of the original fort, approximately where the Food City grocery store is located today. There was a flurry of construction activity with contractors and workers coming and going from the site. The German prisoners were housed in two squadron barracks buildings on what is today Barnhardt Circle. They numbered about 400 German sailors and about 100 civilians. Some of the Germans were helping with the construction and were paid for their labor.
​
Amidst all the activity, three German prisoners stowed themselves away inside two goods boxes that were carried over to the new location, which was still not operational. Around 8pm on the evening of the 15th, William Wagoner, Robert Auer, and Gustov Hartwig emerged from the boxes. They walked about halfway to Rossville before they caught a ride into Chattanooga. The men registered at the Read House Hotel where they stayed the night in room 238. They registered as A. McInnis and G. Wonderpad of Atlanta, and P. Patterson of New Orleans.
​
The next morning, the men ate breakfast at the hotel and then hired two cars, Hartwig and Auer in one, Wagoner in the other. Wagoner paid $5 for his driver to carry him to Trenton, GA, with the intent of catching a train there. Much to his misfortune, he had missed the train south, so he continued on foot along the road. Deputy Sheriff Ben Wilson had read the description of the escaped prisoners and grew suspicious of the pedestrian. Having closely matched the description, Deputy Wilson placed Wagoner under arrest and carried him back to Trenton.
​
Meanwhile, Hartwig and Auer had also taken their ride to Trenton, but they stopped at the Williams house, a private accommodation for travelers. Also staying at Mrs. Williams house on business was Chattanooga attorney Miss Elinor Coonrod. The astute Miss Coonrod was informed about the escape and became suspicious of the two men due to their anxious behavior and insistence on seclusion at the house. In what was probably a coordinated move between the two women, Mrs. Williams went to "arrange" the room occupied by the two men and found among their belongings several books with missing pages, notes written on the pages, and supposedly a photograph of one of the men inside the wire stockade at the prison camp. The sheriff was notified, and the two men were arrested.
​
Sheriff Cross and Deputy US Marshal T.P. McMahon escorted the three men back to Olgethorpe and turned their custody over to Col. Andrus, commandant of the War Prison Barracks No. 2. The Germans admitted their plan was to make it to Mexico.
Miss Elinor Coonrod
Graduation photograph from the University of Chattanooga Law School Class of 1907. First woman to pass the Tennessee Bar exam (Page 5 and continued Page 10)
Chattanooga Daily Times. June 5, 1907.
Escape #2: August 22-24, 1917
Barely had the excitement settled from the previous escape when a second attempt was discovered. Around 8:30pm on Wednesday, August 22, 1917, a sentry making his rounds at the stockade guardhouse found a man in civilian clothes walking away from the guardhouse. The sentry became suspicious of the man, but at the same moment, realized two other prisoners had dropped out of the window at the rear of the guardhouse. The other man broke into a run. Relying on his training, the sentry let the running man go and held the other two men at bayonet point, which prevented further prisoners from dropping out of the window.
The stockade guardhouse was located near the War Prison Barracks stockade's main gate, but outside the double-layer barbed wire fences that made up the outer perimeter. This guardhouse was different from the guardhouse that still exists today on Barnhardt Circle in the original fort.
​
Prisoners Wegner, Hartwig, and Auer from escape #1 were guests in this guardhouse because of their escape attempt the previous week. Also in this guardhouse was a quiet and mysterious man named Arnold Henkel. According to Eric Posselt, Henkel cussed out a guard and earned a trip to the guardhouse, which is exactly what Henkel wanted (American Mercury, pg. 322).
​
According to the newspaper report, Henkel used a hack saw to cut the bars on the bathroom window. The prisoners ran water and sang to drown out the sound of the sawing. It was not known how they got the hacksaws.​ The first person to drop out the window was Henkel. It was said that Wegner, Hartwig, and Auer also were a part of this attempt, which makes sense, although their names were never officially released because they technically did not go missing, thanks to the sentry guard.
The Chattanooga News, May 23, 1918
Not much is known about Henkel. He claimed to be an officer in the engineers of the German army, but other reports say that even the Germans doubted this, as he kept to himself, did not say much, and did not eat with the other officers. He had a history of other escapes prior to Fort Oglethorpe, including the famous prison break with Lt. Hans Berg from Fort McPherson, Atlanta, when he was apprehended in Surrency, GA.
​
Two days later, Henkel was found in Cedar Grove, which is about 22 miles south of the fort in the picturesque lands of McLemore Cove, Walker County. As reported in the Times, farmer W. J. Turner had read about the escape in the news. When a stranger appeared at his door inquiring about something to eat, Turner suspected this might be the escapee. He invited Henkel in and said have a seat, while he went into the kitchen to check on dinner preparations, at which time he got his pistol. Henkel became suspicious that his cover was blown and got up, attempting to leave quickly, but upon trying to exit the front door, Turner fired twice striking Henkel once in the right arm. Henkel immediately surrendered to Turner and admitted he was the escaped prisoner from the news. Turner transported the man back to Fort Oglethorpe where he was returned to the guardhouse. Col. Andrus, commandant of the War Prison Barracks, went to the guardhouse and saw that Henkel was wounded and ordered him taken to the post hospital for treatment.
Escape #3: September 16, 1917
The third escape from Fort Oglethorpe's War Prison Barracks undoubtedly scared a lot of Chattanoogans and surrounding farmers, for these three men were successful and were never seen again. Karl Hentschel was reported to be a lieutenant in the Germany navy. Gustav Hartwig, which the reader will remember was captured in Trenton during escape #1, was reported to be in the German merchant marine. The third escapee was a machinist and "dangerous alien enemy" named Paul F. Neibann. The three had been present at the Saturday evening roll call but were absent from the Sunday morning roll call. During the night a terrific electrical storm and torrential rain roared through the area. It is thought the escapees took advantage of the noise and reduced visibility to make good their escape.
​
Col. Andrus appointed a board of inquiry consisting of Maj. Newgarden, Capt. Royden, and Lt. Moran. They set about interviewing everyone who had a role in the prison camp that night. Federal and local authorities around the country were notified to be on the lookout. Col. Andrus remarked that they would be soon found unless they are receiving outside help.
​
A report in the September 27 Chattanooga News stated that the three prisoners remain at large. This author has never found any report of any of these three prisoners ever being captured. A $50 reward per head was announced (about $1,300 in today's value).
Chattanooga Daily Times
The Chattanooga News
Escape #4: May 21-22, 1918
Escape #4 occurred in broad daylight during good weather. Five prisoners- Arnold Henkel, William Wegner, Jacob C. F. Bruer (Brewer), Richard Luders, and Robert Beese- did not answer for roll call at 5:15pm on that Tuesday afternoon. Capt. Yost, Adjutant of the War Prison Barracks, told the news reporter that a civilian between the post and the city had reported seeing four men making their way in that direction. Supposedly they had dug under the stockade fence. As with previous escapes, a $50 per escapee reward was offered. The "delivery" (prison break) was thought to have occurred around 3pm.
​
That evening, prisoner Richard Luders was the first to be captured in the area of what would today be considered East Ridge. Local resident E. A Wheatley, advertising manager for Chattanooga Medicine, heard that one of the prisoners might be in the vicinity of his land. He sent his chauffeur William Buttner in his car to scout the area down Ringgold Road. The article states Buttner took with him "a negro" named Tom Ward. Buttner and Ward were probably rambling along at a slow speed on the dusty Ringgold Road, looking out over fields and patches of woods as if they were out searching the neighborhood for their lost dog. Suddenly, they saw a man in one of the fields. They stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride. The man said yes and climbed into their automobile machine.
​
As the article goes, they started into town, and when their passenger began to show signs of "wanting to get away, Ward drew a .44 Savage and calmed him with it." And continuing, "The negro still had the gun on the German when the trio showed up at the police station." Luders admitted to his captors that he a citizen of Germany and was one of the escaped prisoners from the war prison. However, when he was being interrogated at the police station, Luders claimed he had escaped alone. He said he cut through the wire without any other fugitives. His personal property at the police station consisted of a watch, $4 in change, and three little keys. Since prisoners were not allowed to keep money in their possession in the prison camp, there was speculation that he had encountered someone sympathetic to his cause. The reporter described Luders as a "dull, illiterate looking fellow, slender, brown convex face and long upper lip. He speaks English thickly, but correctly."​​​​​
Photograph of F. Brewer (Bruer), courtesy of the National Archives
​​The article states that a man named Dave Lomenick, an employee of the Chattanooga Bakery (home of the Moon Pie), saw a strange man this same morning about a mile and a half east of the ridge. This may have been the report that got the attention of Mr. Wheatley, who then sent Mr. Buttner and Mr. Ward scouting for this stranger. (The Lomenick farmlands were large tracts "east of the ridge" that make up a large part of the present-day City of East Ridge, TN. The Lomenick Cemetery claims to be oldest continuously operated cemetery in Hamilton County. Their cemetery is about a mile and a half east of the ridge.) Mr. Lomenick described the stranger as wearing an army shirt, blue pants, a cap, and overalls under his arms. He also said he appeared wet, as if he had been wading through a creek. At the police station, Luders was noted as wearing a wool cap, prison overalls, and old pair of shoes, and an army shirt. Luders was eventually returned to the War Prison Barracks at Fort Oglethorpe. May 21, 1918, was the day that the citizens of "East Ridge" caught an escaped German prisoner. ​​​​
The Chattanooga News, May 25, 1918
The second prisoner- Robert Beese- was captured on May 22. He had covered an astonishing 95 miles in one day to Oakdale, TN, a small town 23 miles west of Oak Ridge, TN. Beese had apparently jumped a freight train out of Chattanooga, but had fallen asleep enroute. While making his inspection rounds in Oakdale, train conductor B. T Cahoon, a resident of Chattanooga, discovered the sleeping interloper on a railcar and woke him up at gunpoint. Mr. Cahoon was aware of the escape through the news. After questioning Beese and hearing his foreign accent, became convinced this was possibly an escapee. Cahoon escorted him to the local YMCA, where Beese was compared to the notice that was posted there about the escape and descriptions of the prisoners. Cahoon then turned Beese over to W. Y. Denton, special agent for the CNO & TP Railway, who took Beese into custody and returned him to Fort Oglethorpe.
​​
Over the next week, there were reports that Henkel had been spotted. Once in Calhoun, in Cartersville, and finally on Sand Mountain. None ever materialized into a capture. An update in the June 11 edition of the Daily Times confirmed that three of the men- Henkel, Bruer (Brewer), and Wegner remained at large. This author can find no evidence in newspapers during the rest of the war that these three were ever caught.
​​​
An opinion article in the May 25 edition of the Chattanooga News accused some of the guards at the War Prison Barracks No. 2 at Fort Oglethorpe of being sympathizers of the Germans and allowed the escapes to happen. The nature of the escape during broad daylight does seem suspicious.
Based on the author's research using descriptions given by reporters, the prison stockade was 31.5 acres more or less square. It was situated about a half mile north northeast of the Fort Oglethorpe original post complex (Barnhardt Circle), and on the east side of the Lafayette Road. Today, the stockade would be bounded by GA Hwy 2/Battlefield Parkway on the north, Lafayette Road on the west, and Forrest Road on the south, with fields bordering the west. The perimeter was an inner and outer barbed wire fence that were between 15-20 feet apart and about 15 feet high. Twelve guard towers were evenly placed along the west, north, and east sides, but none on the south side. The reason for this may be because the prison stockade was adjacent to the Camp Greenleaf medical school, which was between Forrest Road and what is today Reeds Bridge Road. The guard towers around the perimeter were armed with a mounted machine gun, a pump action shotgun, and each occupant would have had their rifle. An escape along the south side would be unlikely because escapees would have to run through the medical camp where thousands of soldiers were living and training. Also, if a breach was observed on the south side, to let loose a volley of machine gun fire would potentially injure or kill soldiers in the medical camp. If the 12 guard towers were evenly spaced along the west, north, and east sides, they would be approximately 78 yards apart. A wooden boardwalk went around the entire stockade connecting the guard towers, and guards were walking the perimeter frequently. Nitrogen lights were used around the perimeter to illuminate the wire. Thus, escape #4 was shrouded in mystery and conspiracy.
​
Until in 1927, when a former prisoner named Eric Posselt tells the story of how escape #4 was effected (American Mercury, pg. 323). See below in the first paragraph, "Again a few weeks passed..."
​​
The reader can read Posselt's entire article here.
The news reporting around escape #4 suffers from several inconsistencies. First, the Chattanooga Daily Times stated four prisoners escaped, but the Chattanooga News claimed five prisoners escaped. This may be due to the Chattanooga News being an evening publication, so the information about the fifth prisoner may not have been known in the morning edition of the Daily Times. Interestingly though, Posselt also mentions four escapees, however, he was writing about this 10 years later.
​
Secondly, the Daily Times' description of Henkel's capture in escape #2 the previous August is wildly fantastic versus what was reported at that time. For example, the account at that time said that Henkel grew nervous that Farmer Turner was on to his identity and broke into a run toward the door, when Turner fired a pistol and struck Henkel in the arm. Nine months later the reporter is giving the backstory on Henkel's previous escape saying that Henkel picked up the farmer's little daughter and used her as a body shield, yet Turner managed to take aim and hit Henkel in the arm with buckshot. It seems highly unlikely that Mr. Turner could selectively place a spray of shotgun pellets around his daughter and only wound Mr. Henkel. This author believes the Escape #2 story about what happened that night in Cedar Grove was more accurately depicted at the time than in the recap in this present article. ​​​​​​​
Escape #5: June 9, 1918
Escape #5 was a
