Isaac Dodson was probably born in the 1830s in Ohio. He probably got married in the 1850s, and his son John was born around 1859.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on November 3, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 56^th Ohio Infantry. He expressed devotion to the Union. After a skirmish in the fall of 1861, he confessed that he had “never witnessed before to see the dead and wounded and to here thare groans.” Nonetheless, he vowed to “stand by the flag of my native land untill death takes me a way.”

 

The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, and the Red River campaign. He mustered out either in November 1864 or April 1866.

 

He settled in Guyandotte, West Virginia, after the war, and he earned a living as a laborer. He applied for a federal pension in February 1872 and eventually secured one. By 1890, he was suffering from chronic rheumatism, and he was blind in one eye. He died sometime after 1890.

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