Author: D. Kent Fonner – The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

“Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dula”

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.

Emanuel Patterson and the 6th United States Colored Troops (USCT)

By D. Kent Fonner
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in November 2024.

Much has been written about the history of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and the brave men of that regiment were celebrated in the movie Glory. There were, however, thousands of more Black soldiers in Mr. Lincoln’s army, most serving in a segregated branch of the U.S. Army designated as the United States Colored Troops (USCT).