Paducah memorial service made sure
colorful captain ‘won’t be forgotten’

For decades, the descendants of Capt. Richard D. Gholson tried to find where their ancestor was buried.

But, without success.

It was known that Capt. Gholson had died 151 years ago while supporting the Confederate cause in Tennessee. The Western Kentucky lawyer and politician had been serving as governor of Washington Territory until the coming Civil War necessitated his return to his native Kentucky.

He had been a member of the state’s 1849 convention that drafted the new Kentucky constitution and was a senator representing Ballard County from 1851-55.

Gholson, a Mexican War veteran, also had been a strong supporter of state’s rights and of presidential candidate James Buchanan, who, in 1859, named him to govern Washington Territory. But, Gholson returned home soon after Abraham Lincoln’s election and resigned his post as the firing on Fort Sumter initiated the war.

He signed on as a captain in the Woodville Cavalry of the Kentucky Guard, but as Union and Confederate forces invaded Kentucky, the unit soon dissolved and Southern sympathizers left to join Confederate troops forming in Tennessee.

At age 58, Gholson began providing supplies for Confederate troops in the Union, Tenn., vicinity. In 1862, that service ended as Gholson was killed in a wagon accident near Troy, Tenn.

At the war’s end, his widow and younger children, who had been with him in Tennessee, returned to their farm in Ballard County. But, there never was any record of Capt. Gholson’s interment. Some family records indicated that he had been buried at Troy. A daughter later indicated that his body may have been returned to Ballard County.  An adult grandson, born years after the Governor’s death, believed he had been buried in Ballard County and left funds to have the grave marked. But that burial site could not be located.

Finally, two great-great grandchildren determined a way of honoring their patriarch. Ann Smith Ford of Richmond and David Gholson of Scottsville designed a memorial stone that would be placed in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah. With the assistance of the Lloyd Tilghman Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the stone was placed in the Confederate Rest section of the cemetery.

On Armed Forces Day, May 19, a memorial service honoring Gholson was conducted by camp members. Speakers at the Saturday memorial service were Tilghman Camp Commander Mike Rhoden, Camp Chaplain Chip Cole, David Arant and Ed Ford, editor of The Kentucky Civil War Bugle. A color guard provided a gun salute conducted by John Suttles, who also played taps.

“Now, the captain won’t be forgotten,” a Tilghman member said as the service concluded.