Tom Dula: The Murder That Sold 10,000 Guitars

In June 1865 a Confederate soldier just shy of his 21st birthday was released from a Union prison camp and began traveling back home to Reedy Branch, in mountainous Wilkes County, North Carolina.

The ballad of Tom Dooley tells us that Dula was captured before he got to Tennessee by a sheriff named Grayson, and although there are stories still repeated about Sheriff Grayson –

"You will notice that Tom Dulas name becomes Dooley in the song. Its common in the southern mountains to shift a final unstressed uh sound to ee, so Dula was -- and is -- frequently pronounced as Dooley. (The song is published as "Tom Dooley," so I use that spelling for the song.) The same practice gave us the Grand Old Opry (for opera), and if you watch The Andy Griffith Show reruns (and why wouldnt you?) you've heard Andy say about Aunt Beas cooking, That was extry good. Although Ive heard this manner of speech all my life, Ive never found an explanation for the derivation. "

Linguistics: Irish American Vernacular English
Explains a lot more on this topic. Imagine - the Irony in a name. This will explain the derivation. Tom and the hill people were probably Irish.


On June 28, a couple of days after Dula set out walking for Tennessee, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The footstone at Tom's grave Wilkes County, North Carolina

Photo: Tom Dula

When they arrived at the gallows a noose was placed around Tom’s neck and he supposedly joked that “You have such a nice clean rope, I ought to have washed my neck.” He was allowed to speak to the crowd and spoke for almost an hour on a broad range of subjects, at one point admonishing the young men in the audience “Boys, stay clear of fiddlin’, women, and whisky.” In his only reference to the murder, he said that if no lies had been told under oath, he would be a free man. At the end of the speech, he gave an affectionate goodbye to his sister, and the other end of the noose was thrown over the gallows and tied. Tom stood calm and said nothing further.