David O Dodd Remembered

From The Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans:

Jan 10, 2011 7:44 AMDavid O. Dodd Rememberedfrom Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans by Web MasterJanuary 8, 2011 marked the 147th anniversary of the hanging of David Owen Dodd in Little Rock, Arkansas by the Federal Army occupying the capitol city in 1864. Dubbed “The Boy Martyr of the Confederacy”, spectators and reenactors payed tribute to a boy that gave his life for a cause greater than he.




To read the entire article and transcription of the service, see below:
From The Arkansas Toothpick:

Boy Martyr of the Confederacy Remembered


By admin
January 9, 2011



January 8, 2011 marked the 147th anniversary of the hanging of David Owen Dodd in Little Rock, Arkansas by the Federal Army occupying the capitol city in 1864. Dubbed “The Boy Martyr of the Confederacy”, spectators and reenactors payed tribute to a boy that gave his life for a cause greater than he.



After being searched by a Federal picket just outside Little Rock in late 1863, Dodd was arrested and tried as a Confederate spy after coded messages with sensitive military data was discovered in his possession. The seventeen year old former telegrapher was facing a dire dilemma: if he were to divulge the name of the person supplying him with sensitive military information, his life would be spared. On all accounts, he refused to comply, up to the very hour of his death on the gallows built on the grounds of the college he attended only a few years prior.



Gathered at the final resting place of David O. Dodd in historic Mt. Holly Cemetery in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, the Sons of Confederate Veterans hosted a memorial that payed tribute to a very special boy. Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Army of the Trans-Mississippi, Danny Honnoll noted that “It is very important for us to be here today because the individual that we are honoring is very significant in the history of the War Between the States in Arkansas.”



Relating the impact this “boy martyr” has 147 years following his death, Honnoll continued, “There are schools named after this individual and there are streets named after this individual. If you go onto the internet, you will find a wealth of knowledge about a man that just turned seventeen years old.”



The 2011 annual memorial was the 100th anniversary of the erection of Dodd’s eight-foot high marble obelisk by the Arkansas State Legislature marking his final resting place. The 1911 dedication was witnessed by tens of thousands of Confederate Veterans, coinciding with the largest post-War gathering of Confederate Veterans at the 1911 U.C.V. Reunion in Little Rock, Arkansas.



Reminiscing on the 1911 dedication, Robert Edwards, 2nd Lt. Commander of the Arkansas Division SCV noted during his keynote speech, that “it was a cold day, it was overcast, there was snow and ice on the ground, and he [Dodd] was driven from the prison to the grounds of St. John’s College where makeshift scaffolding had been erected the day before. It wasn’t anything elaborate.”





Edwards pointed out that Dodd rode astride his own coffin in the wagon during transport to St. John’s College. Upon arrival, five U.S. Cavalry regiments surrounded the seventeen year old as he made his way to the gallows. As the hangman removed Dodd’s coat from him, his hands and feet were bound. When the hangman realized that there was no blindfold to place on him, Dodd, as Edwards relates what may have been the boys last words, “I have a handkerchief in my coat pocket.’ But whatever his last words were, he never betrayed his friends. There lies, as the stone that so aptly says, a martyr.”



Concluding the memorial were the traditional “laying of the roses” followed by a three-volley salute to Dodd, including members of various reenacting groups: 1st Arkansas, 6th Arkansas, 7th Arkansas, 9th Arkansas, NW 15th Arkansas, 2nd Arkansas Mounted, 19th Texas, 24th Mo., and Blocher’s Battery.



TRANSCRIPTION OF MEMORIAL SERVICE:



David O. Dodd Memorial

January 8, 2011

Mt. Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, AR



Honnoll: It is very important for us to be here today because the individual that we are honoring is very significant in the history of the War Between the States and Arkansas. There are elementary schools named after this individual, there’s schools named after this individual, there’s streets named after this individual, and if you go onto the internet, there is a wealth of knowledge about a man that just turned seventeen years old, but this gathering we have here today is a part of history; 100 years ago this year is when they dedicated this marker. They had a Sons of Confederate gathering here- a reunion is what we call it in the SCV. They expected 3-5,000 people and there were tens of thousands of Confederates , actual Confederates on this ground when they dedicated this monument to David O. Dodd. Over at the Arsenal, you will see the stained glass window; it’s 100 years old this year, so I encourage you to go to the Arsenal (MacArthur Park).



At this time, I would like to call on my d ear friend from Benton, 2nd Lt. Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Robert Edwards, to say some words about David O. Dodd for us.



Edwards:(5:43) It is my pleasure on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and in particular, the David O. Dodd Camp #619 in Benton. It is a pleasure to be here to make a few remarks about this young man. As Danny has already said, he was not a man, he was a boy. He was but seventeen years old; h e had just had his seventeenth birthday in November, was tried and arrested in December with a trial in January, and hung on January 8th, on this date, in 1864.



We have a beautiful day to memorialize this young man, unlike the day in which he was hanged. I can give you the biographical information on this young man, but I prefer to speak about his courage and his honesty, his bravery, and his devotion to his country, his family, and how he stayed true to the cause in the face of overwhelming odds.



He was given the opportunity on numerous occasions after he was arrested and after his trial, after his confession, and I’m told that some had said and some had written that even on the tailgate of that wooden wagon he was offered the opportunity to be spared, to have his sentence commuted; he only needed to do one thing: tell me who you got the information from.



On each and every occasion, he said “No”. On each and every occasion, he remained true to his friends. On each and every occasion, he remained loyal to the cause for which his state had seceded. David O. Dodd was a hero. David O. Dodd, in the face of the Union soldiers that invaded Arkansas, was a traitor. David O. Dodd was NOT a traitor. He was honest, he had a good upbringing, and he was a moral and Christian young man that stayed true to the faith.



His grave lies right there, and as Danny has already mentioned, in 1911, the State Legislature erected that 8 foot obelisk there and surrounded the grave. That’s not the grave of a big man, that’s the grave of a boy who acted like a big man. That’s the grave of a seventeen year old. In the face of general officers and a military court martial, he would not divulge the source of information. or the names of his friends and accomplices, but would go to his death in support of his cause.



W.C. Paraham, who was also from Benton, but who also taught at St. John’s College, called him, in an article written in 1880 and was rewritten in 1906, the “Nathan Hale of Arkansas”. David O. Dodd went to St. John’s College and it was sort of ironic that he was hanged on the grounds of the same college which he had attended. Some have said that he quoted Nathan Hale, and he may well have learned it while he was at St. John’s, that he regretted that he had only one life to give for his country. Others have said that he did not.



The ceremony that got him to this point was not a ceremony; it was a cold day, it was overcast, there was snow and ice on the ground, and he was driven from the prison to the grounds of St. John’s College where makeshift scaffolding had been erected the day before. It wasn’t anything elaborate. His coffin was in this wagon, and he sat astride that coffin, and as they pulled the coffin, there were five regiments of cavalry opened up to allow the wagon to drive in. As the hangman took his coat off and secured his arm, they tied his feet, he realized that he did not even have a handkerchief to blindfold this young man, but David said, and some say that these were his last words: “I have a handkerchief in my coat pocket.” Others say that after he had said this he looked to the sky and said “Heaven is not far away.” But whatever his last words were, he never betrayed his friends. There lies, as the stone so aptly says, there lies a martyr.



I looked up the definition of the word “martyr”, it simply said “one who gives his life for a cause.” The last thing I want to say is that one of the witnesses was a young private, John R. Martin. He was a member of Company E of the 1st Iowa Cavalry. He wrote in one of his letters that there was “There was one sad incident that occurred that winter, in February I think, that I was eye witness to. That was the hanging of young David O. Dodd as a spy. He was a mere boy, though a smart one, and while he was amenable under military law to his fate, yet his heroic bearing at the scaffold won my sympathy.”



I appreciate you all coming today. Though we do not have the thousands and thousands as we did back in 1911, but I am certainly grateful for each of you that are here today in 2011. Thank you.”



Honnoll: Now we want to reenct an event that occurred in Columbus, Mississippi. After the battles at Shiloh and Corinth, the ladies down at Columbus, MS., gathered and was marking the graves of their loved ones from the battles. In the process, they looked over on the hill and there were makeshift crosses and rocks for the Federals that had also fallen. So, they had some extra ribbons and flowers and they decorated the Yankee’s graves also as a magnanimous gesture that we are all human beings in the end and we all are children of God.






Filed under: David O. Dodd Camp (Benton)