Much has been reported on Henry Dukes, who served with Company I of the 61st Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. Most of it is incorrect.
What is true is that Henry, late of Jackson County, Alabama, was serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary in Wetumpka, then part of Coosa County, when he was drafted into the military on August 7, 1863, by Captain J. D. Hastings. His military records show that he was in the hospital for 45 days at the Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital #9, on September 3, 1864, in Richmond. Reports that he fell at the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863 are clearly in error.
An old, unsubstantiated letter is cited online as saying the following about Henry Dukes:
"There was a man who was a peddler that came through and was killed. The peddler was buried somewhere near Haigwood Cemetery. People thought Henry Dukes and his Daddy killed him. They were sent up to the pen for the murder. They were taken out of the pen to fight in the Civil War. Henry and his father were killed at the battle of Chattanooga. It was also said that Henry was actually listed as Missing in Action during the battle and that his body was never found. It is also said that he ran off from the war and returned to Jackson County and that he is buried in the woods behind his old home place."
The actual truth is that, in May of 1854, Henry and his older brother William set out to rob and ultimately murdered an Irish linen peddler named Andrew Dobbins, who was carrying between $200-400 in gold. They were sentenced to life and their younger brother David was given a 10-year sentence, which he did not survive. The elder two were released when the tide of war began to turn against the Confederacy, which became desperate for fighting men. All but the very worst of incarcerated men were set free, and while Henry enlisted in a local regiment, William escaped to Virginia, where he served in some capacity.
Henry never made it back to Jackson County, where his family had moved prior to 1851 so that his father Stephen could claim a War of 1812 land bounty. He probably died sometime after December 1864, when he received clothes, possibly for the same reason for which he was hospitalized in the first place.
He left behind a wife, the former Sarah Reynolds, and three children—Mary, Martha Jane and Arthur Campbell Dukes.
What is true is that Henry, late of Jackson County, Alabama, was serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary in Wetumpka, then part of Coosa County, when he was drafted into the military on August 7, 1863, by Captain J. D. Hastings. His military records show that he was in the hospital for 45 days at the Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital #9, on September 3, 1864, in Richmond. Reports that he fell at the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863 are clearly in error.
An old, unsubstantiated letter is cited online as saying the following about Henry Dukes:
"There was a man who was a peddler that came through and was killed. The peddler was buried somewhere near Haigwood Cemetery. People thought Henry Dukes and his Daddy killed him. They were sent up to the pen for the murder. They were taken out of the pen to fight in the Civil War. Henry and his father were killed at the battle of Chattanooga. It was also said that Henry was actually listed as Missing in Action during the battle and that his body was never found. It is also said that he ran off from the war and returned to Jackson County and that he is buried in the woods behind his old home place."
The actual truth is that, in May of 1854, Henry and his older brother William set out to rob and ultimately murdered an Irish linen peddler named Andrew Dobbins, who was carrying between $200-400 in gold. They were sentenced to life and their younger brother David was given a 10-year sentence, which he did not survive. The elder two were released when the tide of war began to turn against the Confederacy, which became desperate for fighting men. All but the very worst of incarcerated men were set free, and while Henry enlisted in a local regiment, William escaped to Virginia, where he served in some capacity.
Henry never made it back to Jackson County, where his family had moved prior to 1851 so that his father Stephen could claim a War of 1812 land bounty. He probably died sometime after December 1864, when he received clothes, possibly for the same reason for which he was hospitalized in the first place.
He left behind a wife, the former Sarah Reynolds, and three children—Mary, Martha Jane and Arthur Campbell Dukes.
Much has been reported on Henry Dukes, who served with Company I of the 61st Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. Most of it is incorrect.
What is true is that Henry, late of Jackson County, Alabama, was serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary in Wetumpka, then part of Coosa County, when he was drafted into the military on August 7, 1863, by Captain J. D. Hastings. His military records show that he was in the hospital for 45 days at the Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital #9, on September 3, 1864, in Richmond. Reports that he fell at the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863 are clearly in error.
An old, unsubstantiated letter is cited online as saying the following about Henry Dukes:
"There was a man who was a peddler that came through and was killed. The peddler was buried somewhere near Haigwood Cemetery. People thought Henry Dukes and his Daddy killed him. They were sent up to the pen for the murder. They were taken out of the pen to fight in the Civil War. Henry and his father were killed at the battle of Chattanooga. It was also said that Henry was actually listed as Missing in Action during the battle and that his body was never found. It is also said that he ran off from the war and returned to Jackson County and that he is buried in the woods behind his old home place."
The actual truth is that, in May of 1854, Henry and his older brother William set out to rob and ultimately murdered an Irish linen peddler named Andrew Dobbins, who was carrying between $200-400 in gold. They were sentenced to life and their younger brother David was given a 10-year sentence, which he did not survive. The elder two were released when the tide of war began to turn against the Confederacy, which became desperate for fighting men. All but the very worst of incarcerated men were set free, and while Henry enlisted in a local regiment, William escaped to Virginia, where he served in some capacity.
Henry never made it back to Jackson County, where his family had moved prior to 1851 so that his father Stephen could claim a War of 1812 land bounty. He probably died sometime after December 1864, when he received clothes, possibly for the same reason for which he was hospitalized in the first place.
He left behind a wife, the former Sarah Reynolds, and three children—Mary, Martha Jane and Arthur Campbell Dukes.
What is true is that Henry, late of Jackson County, Alabama, was serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary in Wetumpka, then part of Coosa County, when he was drafted into the military on August 7, 1863, by Captain J. D. Hastings. His military records show that he was in the hospital for 45 days at the Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital #9, on September 3, 1864, in Richmond. Reports that he fell at the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863 are clearly in error.
An old, unsubstantiated letter is cited online as saying the following about Henry Dukes:
"There was a man who was a peddler that came through and was killed. The peddler was buried somewhere near Haigwood Cemetery. People thought Henry Dukes and his Daddy killed him. They were sent up to the pen for the murder. They were taken out of the pen to fight in the Civil War. Henry and his father were killed at the battle of Chattanooga. It was also said that Henry was actually listed as Missing in Action during the battle and that his body was never found. It is also said that he ran off from the war and returned to Jackson County and that he is buried in the woods behind his old home place."
The actual truth is that, in May of 1854, Henry and his older brother William set out to rob and ultimately murdered an Irish linen peddler named Andrew Dobbins, who was carrying between $200-400 in gold. They were sentenced to life and their younger brother David was given a 10-year sentence, which he did not survive. The elder two were released when the tide of war began to turn against the Confederacy, which became desperate for fighting men. All but the very worst of incarcerated men were set free, and while Henry enlisted in a local regiment, William escaped to Virginia, where he served in some capacity.
Henry never made it back to Jackson County, where his family had moved prior to 1851 so that his father Stephen could claim a War of 1812 land bounty. He probably died sometime after December 1864, when he received clothes, possibly for the same reason for which he was hospitalized in the first place.
He left behind a wife, the former Sarah Reynolds, and three children—Mary, Martha Jane and Arthur Campbell Dukes.
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