Little Rock; Dodd was arrested. The next day he was taken to Little Rock to face Brig. Gen. John Davidson, who was commanding the Union occupation forces in Gen. Frederick Steele's absence. A telegraph operator translated the Morse code, which provided precise locations and strengths of Union troops. David was formally charged as a spy and taken to the military prison (on the site of the present Arkansas State Capitol building). Dodd was interrogated for two days by Union officers who tried to discover the source of the information. On the third day, under personal orders from Gen. Steele, Mary Dodge and her father were escorted under armed guard to a Union gunboat on the Arkansas River and transported to Vermont, where Mary was kept until the end of the war. This suggests that Steele had discovered that Mary Dodge was involved, and that he would not be able to hang a 16-year-old girl. On December 31, 1863, Dodd's trial began in Little Rock before a military tribunal of six Union officers. Brig. Gen. John M. Thayer presided with Capt. B.F. Rice as Judge Advocate. Other members were Col. John A. Garrett, Maj. Phineus Graves, Maj. H.D. Gibson and Capt George Rockwell. The Court Martial lasted four days. The official charges were read by the Judge Advocate: In this, that said David O. Dodd, an inhabitant of the State of Arkansas, did as a Spy of the so-called Confederate States of America, enter within the lines of the Army of the United States, stationed at Little Rock, Arkansas, and did there secretly possess himself of information regarding the number, the kind, and position of the troops of said Army of the United States, their commanders, and other military information valuable to the enemy now at war with the United States, and having thus obtained said information did obtain a pass from the Provost Marshal General's office, and endeavor to reach the lines of the enemy – therewith; when he was arrested at the cavalry outposts of said Army – and did otherwise lurk, and act as a spy of the Rebels now in arms against the United States – This at the Post of Little Rock, and the encampments of the Army of Arkansas, on or about the 29th and 30th of December, 1863. To these charges, David pleaded "Not Guilty". On January 1, 1864, the trial continued with Dodd