January 8, 2011

On January 8, 1864, seventeen-year-old David O. Dodd was hanged as a Confederate spy on the grounds of St. Johns’ College in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Less than two weeks before, a Union sentry had discovered Dodd with a notebook detailing Union military positions in Morse code. His hanging became a gruesome spectacle because the rope used for the execution was too long. Instead of a quick death, it took approximately five minutes for Dodd to strangle to death. The body of Dodd, whom some call “the boy martyr of the Confederacy,” rests in the capital city’s Mount Holly Cemetery.

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