Not Tom Dula

   There is an image floating around on the internet labeled “Tom Dula.” We are not sure who this image is of, but we are sure that it certainly is not Tom Dula. A little background:

   Thomas C. Dula was born June 22, 1845, in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Tom was just a kid when the war came along. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in Company K, 42^nd North Carolina Troops, on April 24, 1862. He was mustered in as a private. In January or February 1864, Dula was promoted to a musician and started beating a drum for his regiment. Dula was captured during the battle of Wise Forks, March 10, 1865, and was confined at Point Lookout, Maryland, until June 11, 1865, when he was released after taking his Oath of Allegiance. Tom then returned home to Wilkes County.[1]

Not Tom Dula/Dooley. 

   Prior to the war, Tom Dula was in a relationship with Ann Melton, who was married to James Melton at the time. As soon as Dula returned from the war, he resumed his relationship with Ann. According to various court testimonies, Tom was having relationships with various other women at the same time, including Caroline Barnes, Pauline Foster, and Laura Foster.[2]  

   Laura Foster was from just a few miles away. She and Pauline were cousins. Pauline later testified that she left neighboring Watauga County and came to her grandfather’s residence, seeking the help of a local doctor. Pauline had syphilis. She soon passed it on to Tom, who passed the venereal disease to Ann and Laura. It later came out at the trial that Tom may have killed Laura because he believed she had infected him. Regardless of the motive, on May 24 or 25, 1866, Tom presumably killed Laura, buried the body, and fled to Tennessee. He was captured in July, was eventually tried twice, with Zebulon Baird Vance as one of his lawyers, and was hanged May 1, 1868, in Statesville, North Carolina. Tom Dula is buried near his home in Wilkes County.[3]

   The story of Tom Dula is interesting, but in and of itself, not all that important. Events like this happened all over the place, especially during those unpleasant Reconstruction years. What does make the story important is the folklore that grew up over the following decades. The events became a ballad that was sung in a style going back centuries, similar to other songs of love and death like “The House Carpenter” and “Barbery Ellen.” In the 1930s, the ballad was collected on the back side of Beech Mountain, Watauga County, by a couple from New York – Frank and Ann Warner. They passed it on to Allen Lomax who passed it on to the Kingston Trio who recorded “The Ballad of Tom Dooley.” This song is credited with starting the folk music revolution of the 1960s. It was their first hit.[4]

   So what about the photograph that appears all across the internet? It is not Tom… In 2004, Joel Reese, Local History Librarian at the Iredell County Public Library, was looking for a picture to accompany a program on Tom Dula/Dooley that the library was hosting. He went to the Library of Congress, downloaded an unidentified image of the Civil War soldier, and used that image, but never claimed that it was Tom; it was just an illustration. Overnight, the unknown soldier became the infamous Tom Dooley. You can read this story here. Despite the image appearing on markers, in museums, on findagrave, or on the internet in general, this image is not Tom.

   So just who is it? Based upon the unknown soldier’s hat, breast place, and buckle, many of us believe that the soldier served in the Volunteer Maine Militia. One site states that there were fifty-eight companies of Maine Volunteer Militia in 1854. Some of these become regular Maine infantry regiments during the war, while others were disbanded before the war.[5]

   Will we ever have an actual image of Tom Dula/Dooley? Probably not. But we should stop using this image. It is not Tom. It is not even an image of a Confederate soldier. It is, however, a clear reminder of the dangers of poor research and the pitfalls of the internet. By making an incorrect assumption about an illustration that was never labeled as Tom Dula, those who have passed around that false label have caused confusion and the perpetuation of false information.

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[1] Jordan, NC Troops, 10:282.

[2] West, The Ballad of Tom Dula, 56-57.

[3] West, Lift up your Head, Tom Dooley, 14-19.

[4] Eacker, “Frank Proffitt, Sr.,” Encyclopedia of Appalachia, 1199-1200.

[5] https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/1st_Maine_Volunteer_Infantry