looked to his business associates in Little Rock for the needed cash. Because Little Rock was in Union hands, he could not make the trip himself. On December 24, 1863, he sent David Dodd—a minor and therefore assumed neutral—to Little Rock to deliver letters to former associates seeking investments for the tobacco deal. Confederate Gen. James F. Fagan or Confederate Col. William A. Crawford issued the boy a pass. Dodd rode a mule to Little Rock, carrying a birth certificate showing he was an underage 17 along with his pass. Dodd stayed with his aunt, Mrs. Susan Dodd, in Little Rock. Except for some Union soldiers, there were very few teenage boys in the city, and Dodd was popular with the city's younger girls. He even became popular with some of the younger servicemen at the arsenal, especially because he usually was accompanied by a local girl or two. In addition to his father's letters, he also delivered letters to several people he knew. Dodd attended some holiday dances with at least two girls, Mary Swindle and Minerva Cogburn. He also spent some time with 16-year-old Mary Dodge at her home, where Union officers were quartered. Mary supported the Southern cause; her father, R. L. Dodge, was a Vermont native on friendly terms with the Northern troops. On December 28, 1863, Dodd visited the Provost Marshal's office at St. John's College (several hundred yards southwest of the arsenal) and had no trouble obtaining a pass through Union lines to rejoin his family in Camden. Dodd left Little Rock the next day. As he left Union territory, the guard tore up Dodd's pass since he would no longer need it now that he was in Confederate land. He went to spend the night with his uncle, Washington Dodd, on the Middle Hot Springs Road southwest of Little Rock. The next day Dodd traveled through the woods and found himself back behind Union lines. Arrest and trial On December 29, 1863, Dodd was stopped by a Union sentry in west Little Rock, near Ten Mile House on Stagecoach Road, and was found to be without a pass. For identification he showed his small leather notebook, where Union soldiers found his birth certificate and a page with dots and dashes. A Union officer was able to read some of the Morse code messages, which contained information about Union troop strength and locations in