Ok, I am wonder if anyone can help me out here. I know that there are a bunch of David O. Dodd experts that hang around on this board.

In many of the stories told about David it is said that he was a telegrapher. And that when captured he had a piece of paper on him with a "coded" message.

Questions;

Was he in fact a telegrapher?

Second, if so who did he work for? Was he employed as a telegrapher with any of the telegraph companies in Little Rock or Pine Bluff?

The reason that I ask this is that I recently discovered that there was a Pine Bluff Telegraph Company in June of 1862 which had office in both Little Rock and Pine Bluff but also served Princeton, Camden and Arkadelphia.

We know from Hindman's Copybook of Telegraphs that Military messages were passed over this companies system. We also known that telegraph lines from Little Rock went to at least Brownsville and DeValls Bluff and probably up the Arkansas River valley to Fort Smith.

Being a telegrapher in the 1860's was almost like being a Computer tech today. Telegraphs were expensive to operate and maintain and being a telegrapher would have been a reason that David may have had easy access to entering and leaving Little Rock and other areas under Union occupation if he were maintaining the lines say between the garrisons at Pine Bluff and Little Rock.