Private Henry Dodd
Pvt. Henry Dodd
Private Henry Dodd was born c. 1826 in Franklin County, Virginia. He was believed to have been sold by his original Virginia enslaver. Dodd listed his most recent enslaver as Stephen Woodson of Missouri when he enlisted with the 18th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, Co. C, in Mexico, Missouri. This was October 11th, 1864. Military records described him as a farmer, age 38, with black hair, yellow skin and dark eyes, standing 5 feet 4.5 inches tall. Just nine days later, he reported for duty at Benton Barracks, Missouri.
Dodd’s regiment performed guard duty at Paducah, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. The regiment withstood the siege of Nashville by General Hood’s army December 1-15, 1864 and pursued General Hood to the Tennessee River from December 17–28, and then at Bridgeport, Alabama, guarded railroads until February 1865. There was action at Elrod's Tan Yard on January 27 at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in the District of East Tennessee until February 1866.
Henry mustered out of the Army February 21,1866 in Huntsville, Alabama. Military records noted that he took a 30-day leave in November 1865 and owed the government $19.38 for travel while on furlough. At this same time, Henry reportedly suffered from typhoid fever.
Henry’s job, as he reported in pension claims, included bridge building in the water of the Meramec River in Missouri where he was forced to sleep at night on open cold and wet grounds which led to rheumatism, asthma, and spine and joint pains. He was not able to work much after his Army exit. Farming, working in a brickyard, and as a teamster were recorded as his census occupations. Henry appears in the United States Census of 1870 and 1900 where it was marked that he could not read nor write.
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On mustering out of the Army, Private Henry Dodd returned to Macon County, Missouri, where he reunited with his wife Gemima “Mima” Dodd, with whom he had a daughter, Virginia (born 1854), also known as Mollie. Mima died in 1879 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence, Missouri.
In 1883, Henry married Jennie Green, age 26, who had divorced Saul Bailey in 1880. Jennie could read and write, and from 1890-1897, Jennie submitted numerous affidavits to the U.S. Pension Bureau about Henry’s ailments contracted during the war. Despite extensive testimony from friends, war colleagues, doctors, and lawyers that Henry’s ailments stemmed from his war service, his pension claim was repeatedly denied. These affidavits stressed that Henry was not of a “vicious nature,” was sober, and that his disabilities were directly related to his former war impairments causing his disabilities.
Henry passed away on April 18,1903, in Macon County, Missouri, at around 74 years of age. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence, Missouri, with his headstone provided by the United States government. His burial was overseen by the Colored Knight Templars, of which he was a prominent member. His obituary was published in a local newspaper.
After his death, Jennie Dodd, laundress, received his pension of $8 a month starting in 1903, until her death sometime after 1920. Henry’s daughter, Virginia Dodd, was also interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Macon County, Missouri in 1934, beside her parents. A search for additional descendants was inconclusive.
Contributors: Sheridan Brown, Lydia Gallebresi, and Joyce Staples