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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 1/7/14 at 8:17 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 1/7/14 at 8:17 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 8 January 1864
While there were many changes and innovations in warfare during the War for Southern Independence, one item remained as it has always been: there was little to no mercy given to captured spies. One such, a purported Confederate agent named David O. Dodd, paid the ultimate price for his activities today, after a trial which caused considerable uproar in the Western area, although it was little covered in the Eastern press, even though he was only 17 years of age at the time. Captured in Little Rock, Arkansas, and also tried there, he was this afternoon hanged there, in front of St. John's College. All over the western area changes were coming rapidly. A meeting was held in New Orleans of Union sympathizers, to organize reconstruction efforts.
Captain Raphael Semmes, commanding the CSS Alabama, noted in his journal that he had identified himself to an English bark as the USS Dacotah in search of the raider Alabama. The bark's master replied: "It won't do; the Alabama is a bigger ship than you, and they say she is iron plated besides." Had Semmes' ship been armored in fact, the outcome of his battle with USS Kearsarge six months later might have been different.
The USS Kennebec, Lieutenant Commander William P. McCann, chased the blockade runner John Scott off Mobile for some eight hours and captured her with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. John Scott's pilot, William Norval, well known for his professional skill and for aiding the blockade runners, was sent by Commodore Henry K. Thatcher to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned.
General John Hunt Morgan held a reception at Richmond, Virginia. Judge Moore, of Kentucky, in a speech on the occasion, spoke of the worth of General Morgan, and the great credit with which he had served his country. He was now receiving the grateful testimony of the Mother of States. He said that "...Morgan and other Kentuckians who were battling for the liberties of the South, would not sheathe their swords until her liberty was achieved. Despite the thraldom in which Kentucky was held, the muster rolls of the army showed that forty-nine thousand of her sons had joined their fortunes with ours, and this, despite the fact that the heel of the tyrant was on her neck. He knew the sentiment of the people there — they would be found with the South. The Yankees have desolated her homes and murdered her people. Kentucky never will join her fortunes with the Northern Government.”
The Confederate blockade-runner Dare, while attempting to slip into the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, was chased ashore and destroyed.
While there were many changes and innovations in warfare during the War for Southern Independence, one item remained as it has always been: there was little to no mercy given to captured spies. One such, a purported Confederate agent named David O. Dodd, paid the ultimate price for his activities today, after a trial which caused considerable uproar in the Western area, although it was little covered in the Eastern press, even though he was only 17 years of age at the time. Captured in Little Rock, Arkansas, and also tried there, he was this afternoon hanged there, in front of St. John's College. All over the western area changes were coming rapidly. A meeting was held in New Orleans of Union sympathizers, to organize reconstruction efforts.
Captain Raphael Semmes, commanding the CSS Alabama, noted in his journal that he had identified himself to an English bark as the USS Dacotah in search of the raider Alabama. The bark's master replied: "It won't do; the Alabama is a bigger ship than you, and they say she is iron plated besides." Had Semmes' ship been armored in fact, the outcome of his battle with USS Kearsarge six months later might have been different.
The USS Kennebec, Lieutenant Commander William P. McCann, chased the blockade runner John Scott off Mobile for some eight hours and captured her with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. John Scott's pilot, William Norval, well known for his professional skill and for aiding the blockade runners, was sent by Commodore Henry K. Thatcher to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned.
General John Hunt Morgan held a reception at Richmond, Virginia. Judge Moore, of Kentucky, in a speech on the occasion, spoke of the worth of General Morgan, and the great credit with which he had served his country. He was now receiving the grateful testimony of the Mother of States. He said that "...Morgan and other Kentuckians who were battling for the liberties of the South, would not sheathe their swords until her liberty was achieved. Despite the thraldom in which Kentucky was held, the muster rolls of the army showed that forty-nine thousand of her sons had joined their fortunes with ours, and this, despite the fact that the heel of the tyrant was on her neck. He knew the sentiment of the people there — they would be found with the South. The Yankees have desolated her homes and murdered her people. Kentucky never will join her fortunes with the Northern Government.”
The Confederate blockade-runner Dare, while attempting to slip into the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, was chased ashore and destroyed.
This post was edited on 1/8/14 at 9:09 am
1
Posted on 1/8/14 at 12:07 am to BadLeroyDawg
There is a memorial service for Dodd coming up. LINK
Of the accounts I have read of the Dodd hanging I was surprised to hear of the Arkansas River being frozen for weeks such that people could and did walk across it on the day the hanging occurred. It's been real cold the last couple of days but in modern times I cannot fathom the river being in that condition--no doubt the locks and dams since then must have had an impact. The actual hanging itself was gruesome by all accounts. LINK
Of the accounts I have read of the Dodd hanging I was surprised to hear of the Arkansas River being frozen for weeks such that people could and did walk across it on the day the hanging occurred. It's been real cold the last couple of days but in modern times I cannot fathom the river being in that condition--no doubt the locks and dams since then must have had an impact. The actual hanging itself was gruesome by all accounts. LINK
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