Talk:Tom Dula

Untitled
Inline citations would help. Rklawton 02:58, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I've never been very good at formatting inlines. I was going to try to do it in the initial writing of the article, but it was becoming cumbersome, so I just focused on the actual writing of the article. Hopefully I can get that figured out before too long and fix it. K. Scott Bailey 03:14, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * No need, all done :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by WebHamster (talk • contribs) 21:46, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Middle Sections
The middle sections need references. Likely, somthing in the ones that already exist will work (just need to be put in, and page numbers for books if you can) --Rocksanddirt 00:12, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I would have cited the details about his regiment, but I wasn't sure how to go about citing an image. I got the details off a picture of his gravestone (actually the footstone of his grave as apparently some of the details on the headstone are incorrect).  WebHamste r  00:21, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * According to the census records from August 1860 he was then 15, making 1845 the correct year of birth. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.114.49.102 (talk) 23:40, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

Birth Year
The book by Foster dates Dula's birth as 1844, citing as evidence his mother's statement that he turned 22 in June of 1866, as well as his military records that showed he was 17 in March of 1862. I'll leave it 1845, until we can figure out which is most probable. It's sometimes difficult to tell with these hill families, as the headstones are often off on the years. K. Scott Bailey 01:54, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The Census Records from August 1860 states his age as 15 at the time of the census, menaning that he was born in June 1845.Jan Kronsell (talk) 12:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

A "lady's man"
I know it doesn't sound very encyclopedic, but all of the literature speaks of his ... well ... propensity to carry on with the ladies quite a lot. He was even known to have had two or three women in his life at one time. Can you think of a more encyclopedic way to phrase this propensity? Or is it even important enough to include? At some point, I would like to see this article move to FA status, so I will take all the help anyone wants to offer. K. Scott Bailey 19:49, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * If you have a solid really reliable source for that kind of stuff....I say include it, we are trying for biographies of real people. Some of them have "issues".  --Rocksanddirt 02:50, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I was trying to come up with a more "encyclopedic" way of saying the same thing. Any ideas? K. Scott Bailey 02:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I don'tthink it's necessary, but if you do end up using it, it's Ladies' man. Jeffpw 04:38, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * What if the phrasing was changed to "womanizer"? And I'm still up in the air about inclusion. It was an important part of who he was, per the sources I have found, but is it important to include in the article. That's the question I haven't answered yet. K. Scott Bailey 04:44, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Libertine is a nice word, and encompasses what you want to say. Lothario might work, too, though I think it doesn't sound as good as libertine. Jeffpw 04:54, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Nothing like a good $0.50 word to liven up the article a bit! And it would probably give us another wikilink as well. BTW, about wikilinks, the more an article is "connected" to other articles, the better off the article is, right? K. Scott Bailey 04:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
 * What about "more", short for man-whore? It also succinctly (another 50-cent word) describes the appetite, as in always wanting more.

Need help with formatting the citations I just added
Any help putting those into a cleaner format would be GREATLY appreciated. K. Scott Bailey 23:36, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * All done. I've also changed the birth year back to 1845 as that is what it states on the citations you gave for the birth year.  WebHamste r  00:04, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your help. And I must have read it wrong, then. I could have sworn they said he was 17 when he signed up for the army, in March of 1862, which means he would have turned 18 in June of that year, making his birth year 1844. Odd... K. Scott Bailey 03:23, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Worked, but not apprehended in Trade, TN
Being born in Carter Co., TN, near the Johnson Co. line, I had always heard Tom Dula was caught in Pandora, TN. In point of fact, was shown EXACTLY the rock in the Roan Creek where he sitting and was cooling his feet after the new boots he had bought in Taylorsville (now Mountain City) had blistered his feet. Appearantly, he had worn out his previous pair escaping for NC and working a farm in Trade. I have found one reference, below to support this version. I'll get another and will try to get a picture of the historic plaque along the creek before attempting changes. --FatBean (talk) 00:12, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

http://www.main.nc.us/graham/mcclung/Dooley%20Legend.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by FatBean (talk • contribs) 23:36, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

K, here's another ref. Will see about a pic later this week...

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/johnson/legends/tom_dula.htm --FatBean (talk) 00:17, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Meeting Ann and Laura
It is possible that Tom knew both Laura and Ann when he was a kid, but its nok likely. Ann lived a few hundred yards away from Tom, while Laura lived in German's Hill at least 8 miles away.

Also it cannot be true, that Tom returned from the war and discovered that Ann had married James Melton while he was away. According to marriage records from Wilkes county, Ann and James married in 1859 when he was 20 and she was 15, 3 years before Tom joined the army. Also to say, Military records shows, that James Melton served in Company K together with Tom and many more of the people mentioned during trial.

Census records from 1870 shows that at that time, James was 32, Ann 26 and their daughter, Jane Martha was 9, so to say James was an older man is of course correct, but to me "older" indicates a difference larger than 5 or 6 years.

Also Tom did not leave the county after Lauras body was found. He left and was arrested several weeks before the body was found. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.61.239.253 (talk) 20:33, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Moved from article
His Confederate military muster records (20 pages) are available on Footnote. They include: -		 -	Pages 1, 2 and 3 with his name spelled three different ways -	Pages 11, 12, 13 and 17 show him as a musician -	Page 17 shows he was a drummer -	Page 18 shows he was from Elkville, NC - Page 19 shows he was a POW for only 3 months -	Page 20 shows he took the Oath of Allegiance, was released and returned home. -		 -	From: http://web.rtmc.net/~bobmoyer/ed2go//Gentutors/login-footnote.htm

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090518193528/http://www.blueridgecountry.com/archive/tom-dooley.html to http://www.blueridgecountry.com/archive/tom-dooley.html
 * Added tag to http://www.truewestmagazine.com/jcontent/history/history/ask-the-marshall/2948-what-is-the-story-behind-the-folk-song-tom-dooley
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070808020608/http://www.wilkesplaymakers.com/contente.asp?page_id=dooleye to http://www.wilkesplaymakers.com/contente.asp?page_id=dooleye

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Picture in infobox
Either it IS known to be Tom Dula and the caption should be removed or it ISN'T known to be Tom Dula and the picture should be removed. The current version is contradictory and stupid. --Khajidha (talk) 12:07, 2 August 2020 (UTC)
 * While that photograph has been used as Tom Dula on several non-Wikipedia articles and stories, as best I can tell there is no evidence it actually is Tom Dula. The most definitive thing I have found regarding this photograph is in the Library of Congress, which labels it simply "Confederate Soldier", and makes no mention of Dula. Given all of that, I agree with the removal of the photograph. A better idea might be to search for a drawing that was made reporesenting Dula, during the periods where the murder ballad about his life gained prominence. Hallward's Ghost (Kevin) (My talkpage) 02:13, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Overall tone of article
Reads like a folk tale in places. 'No one really knows what happened that day... '; 'people still say that...' rather than an encyclopedia article Martyn Smith (talk) 23:00, 15 November 2021 (UTC)