John C Rigdon

At the end of the American Civil War, as the Confederate armies dissolved, many records were lost. This odd book comes from almost a century and a half after the war, yet it feels as if someone had tried to gather up the records of the 42nd North Carolina, and only managed to recover some.

The book lists an author but hardly has one. It really is more of a scrapbook. It starts with two items which have nothing to do with the 42nd, "Aye, But Its Hopes Are Dead," a poem about Confederate banners, and "A Turtle on a Fence Post," which is the only introduction we get -- two paragraphs saying that it's compiled from old sources. Then a list of the regimental officers, followed by photographs of some of them, and information about the generals under whom the 42nd served. Then a "Timeline of the Civil War in Virginia," which again is largely irrelevant to the 42nd, since it didn't arrive in Virginia until 1864! Finally, on page 62, we get something actually about the 42nd, the "Historical Sketch" derived from the work of Donald A. Stroh, followed by some "First Hand Accounts" follow; these are interesting but still do not add up to a real history.. I have to imagine that all of these, even the Stroh piece, are almost verbatim, since the language (e.g. as regards Blacks) would hardly be acceptable today.

Finally, there is a list of the men who served in the 42nd.

I can't claim to have checked every item here, but it looks very much as if this catalog was taken from some printed source, scanned, subjected to optical character recognition, and never proofread. The part I have checked is very bad. I refer you to the roster of Company K, which begins on p. 258. It starts with a list of officers. The last one listed is

Duie (Duly / Duia), Thomas C.

Down among the infantrymen, we find

Dooley, Thomas C.
Dula (Dulin, William C.) - Died
Dula, William L.

This is why I was looking at this book, because that "Thomas C. Dooley," whose correct name was Thomas C. Dula, would a year after the war murder one Laura Foster for giving him syphilis, and under the name "Tom Dooley," would have a world-famous song sung about him.

But Rigdon's records are all wrong. There are accurate records available in North Carolina Troops 1861-1865: A Roster, Volume X, which includes the 42nd. Tom Dula was never an officer of the company. He enlisted as a private in 1862, at the age of 17, and the only "promotion" he ever received was to musician, in 1864. He and his older brother William served until the Battle of Wise's Fork in 1865, where they were both captured. William died while in captivity; Tom survived to go home and be hung a few years later.

Tom's release papers did spell his name "Dooley," which is more or less how the name was pronounced; presumably some clerk asked him his name and wrote "Dooley," and Tom, rather than get into a fight, let the mis-spelling stand. But every contemporary record from his home area calls the family "Dula." In any case, all the Dulas in Company K had the same surname. Thus Rigdon's records for them are quite inaccurate -- wrong rank in one place and wrong spelling in both places. And there is a lot more detail in North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 anyway. Rigdon's book has some value -- it gathers things that aren't gathered elsewhere -- but you really have to check other records to know what is reliable.… (més)