By D. Kent Fonner
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in May 2026.
Tom Dula (pronounced “Dooley” based on the Appalachian dialect that pronounces a letter “a” ending a word like a “y” – “Grand Ole Opry” for example) served in Company K, 42nd North Carolina Volunteers. Dula, after his service in the Civil War, including time as a POW at Point Lookout, Maryland, returned to Wilkes County, North Carolina, to his home in Happy Valley on the Yadkin River. Prior to the war, Dula had an affair with a woman named Ann Melton, the wife of a local farmer, James Melton. When Dula returned in 1865, he soon resumed his relationship with Ann Melton, but eventually cohabitated in a cabin in the woods with Ann’s cousin, Laura Foster.
In May 1866, Laura Foster disappeared after she was seen riding her father’s horse toward a well-known spot used as a lover’s rendezvous. Her body was discovered in a shallow grave about a month later. She had been stabbed once in the chest. The next day, Tom Dula disappeared and eventually crossed the North Carolina state line to work on the farm of Colonel James Grayson in Trade, Tennessee, using the name Tom Hall. When Dula’s identity was revealed, Colonel Grayson joined the Wilkes County, North Carolina, posse searching for Dula, who was believed to be Laura Foster’s killer.
After Tom Dula was captured, he was brought back to North Carolina, tried, and convicted twice for Laura Foster’s murder. (His first conviction resulted in an appeal and a new trial.) Dula was hanged on May 1, 1868, in Statesville, North Carolina. Dula’s case became famous at the time. From the gallows he continued to proclaim his innocence, and his lawyer, former C.S.A. North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance, was convinced of Dula’s innocence for the rest of his life.
There has been significant damage to the gravestone because of souvenir seekers chipping off pieces of the gravestone.
The gravestone indicates that she was murdered and that Tom Dula was hanged for the murder.
By the time of Dula’s death, local townsmen were already singing a short ditty:
Hang down your head, Tom Dula.
Hang down your head and cry.
You killed poor Laura Foster,
And now you’re bound to die.
The verse soon expanded into a full song, and 90 years later the American folk music singers, The Kingston Trio, brought the tragic story of Tom Dula and Laura Foster to a worldwide audience with their hit recording “Tom Dooley.”
