Dalzell was an Episcopal priest with medical training who hailed from St. Vincent in the Caribbean. He was descended from sugar plantation owners. Dalzell received acclaim in Shreveport, Louisiana, for staying at his post during a yellow fever epidemic in 1873. In 1893, Dalzell was honored with a Doctorate of Divinity at Sewanee. He had served as a Confederate chaplain during the war.

Mary Lilla McLure and Jolley Edward Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (Shreveport, 1937): 256.