tailgate. The rope stretched and the boy dangled, strangling to death over a full five minutes. Onlookers and Union soldiers became ill. The record is unclear about exactly how Dodd died. Some contend that one or two soldiers grabbed his legs to add weight and hasten his death. Others told that a soldier shinnied up the gibbet to grab the noose, twist the rope and raise the condemned off the ground. Military doctors who examined Dodd's body reported death due to "a disrupted spine." Just prior to the funeral, Union headquarters ordered no spoken or sung words at the memorial service, and that only Dodd's relatives in Union-held territory (two aunts and their husbands) would be allowed to attend. The town was tense; a riot was possible and there was fear that a Confederate raid would take advantage of the situation. Security around Gen. Steele's headquarters was increased; no one was allowed to see him except on official business. Calm prevailed, and David O. Dodd was buried in plot Elm 355 in the southeast portion of Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, in a grave donated by a Little Rock resident. This cemetery was also the eventual resting place of R.L. Dodge and Gen. Fagan. At a time when Union sympathies ran high in Arkansas and a constitutional convention was in session to enable the state to rejoin the Union, Dodd's execution fueled renewed divisions between Union and Confederate factions. Dodd quickly became a folk hero and a force behind renewed Confederate dissension. After hearing the news of their son's execution, Andrew and Lydia Dodd spent the remainder of their lives in ill health. Andrew died of yellow fever in 1867, while Lydia died in Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1885. In March 1864, Gen. Steele was relieved of responsibilities in Little Rock and was replaced by a harsh anti-Southern commander. Legacy Dodd's story has been told in the poem The Long, Long Thoughts of Youth by Marie Erwin Ward, a full-length play Boy Hero: The Story of David O. Dodd by Dr. Nancy Hendricks, and a 1915 silent Hollywood movie of which no prints are known to exist. A monument memorializes Dodd's hanging in MacArthur Park next to the former Arsenal. Dodd's grave is marked by an eight-foot marble monument, engraved "Here lies the remains of David O. Dodd. Born in Lavaca County, Texas, Nov. 10, 1846, died Jan. 8, 1864."