Robert Fulton Dodd

Carried wounded comrades through the inferno of the Crater.

Robert Fulton Dodd was born on December 31, 1844, in West Flamboro, Canada. During the American Civil War, he entered Union service and became a soldier in Company E of the 27th Michigan Infantry. His wartime service would eventually place him in one of the most violent and chaotic battles of the Petersburg Campaign.

By the summer of 1864, the Union Army was attempting to break the Confederate defenses around Petersburg, Virginia. On July 30, Union forces detonated a massive mine beneath the Confederate lines, opening a huge crater and beginning what became known as the Battle of the Crater. The initial opportunity quickly collapsed into confusion as Union troops crowded into and around the shattered earthworks while Confederate forces reorganized and poured fire into the exposed area.

Dodd was serving as a private and performing duties as an orderly during the battle. Amid the intense fighting, wounded soldiers lay exposed in front of the crater, where reaching them meant crossing ground swept by enemy fire.

Rather than remain in relative safety, Dodd voluntarily went forward under heavy Confederate fire to assist the wounded. He repeatedly exposed himself while helping bring injured soldiers away from the battlefield and toward greater safety. His actions were not the result of a direct order to attack an enemy position, but of a deliberate decision to risk his own life for men who could no longer remove themselves from danger.

The Battle of the Crater became one of the most disastrous episodes of the Petersburg Campaign, marked by severe casualties and confused close-range fighting. Against that background, Dodd’s willingness to move into the fire to recover wounded comrades stood out as an act of exceptional personal courage.

Dodd continued his military service after the battle and later held the rank of corporal, the highest verified rank of his Army career. He survived the Civil War and eventually returned to civilian life.

Recognition for his actions at Petersburg came more than three decades later. On July 27, 1896, Robert Fulton Dodd received the Medal of Honor for his conduct at the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864. The award recognized his voluntary efforts to rescue wounded soldiers while exposed to intense enemy fire.

After the war, Dodd eventually lived in Canada. He died in Winnipeg on September 4, 1903, and was buried at Hillside Cemetery in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Robert Fulton Dodd’s legacy rests on a choice made amid the chaos of the Crater. With wounded men lying beyond safety and enemy fire sweeping the battlefield, he went forward to bring them back. That willingness to risk his life for others earned him the Medal of Honor and secured his place among the soldiers recognized for extraordinary courage during the American Civil War.