Back in 1998, I acquired my first computer. I really didn’t know what, exactly, I wanted to do with it. I always thought, though, that I wanted to look up the Cordle genealogy, since my grandmother was born around Blaine, Kentucky. My wife being from Lawrence County, it made it all the easier to start on my Kentucky ancestors.

The first Cordle I contacted was Charles H. Cordle, of Cordell, Kentucky. My wife and I had a long conversation with he and his wife, Donna. We came to find out that Charles was a great-grandson of Amos Cordle, a brother to my great-great-grandfather, John Michael Cordle. After this conversation, it led me to another Charles Cordle, who lives on Raccoon Creek of Hood, and his wife Doris. This is where I hit the jackpot. Charles is the great-grandson of Jeremiah Cordle, another brother of my great-great-grandfather. He related to me as to where the William Cordle cemetery is, and where John Michael and his wives are buried, along with many other Cordles. This cemetery is also known as the “Granddaddy” cemetery, because of William Cordle, the father of 18 children, and who came to Lawrence County from Wilkes County, North Carolina. His father’s name was Jeremiah Caudill, who served in the North Carolina Detached Militia in the War of 1812. William, while a young man, left North Carolina and married Jane Wheeler in Virginia. They then established a home on Raccoon Creek of Hood’s Fork. This is where it all started with my Cordles.

It was very easy to find information about my grandmother, Priscilla, and my great-grandfather, Jeremiah Buchanan. But then the task became more difficult. Until, that is, I ran across a four-volume set called Appalachian Crossroads, the Caudill Family by Clayton R. Cox. As I started going through this, I didn’t realize that my great-great-grandfather was one of 18 children. Of these 18, they all had large families. My great-great-grandfather had two wives, and from what I learned, approximately 10 children that lived, Jeremiah Buchanan being one of these surviving.

After I found out that John Michael had served in the Civil War, my interest changed direction to the Civil War. I’ve always been a Civil War buff. After going to the local library and finding out that I could receive records from the National Archives, this really got me going. First, I got John Michael’s military records, then his pension records, and lastly started looking to find out about other Cordles who had been in the Civil War. These all were brothers. John Michael and Ralph both served in Company D of the 14th Volunteer Infantry. William Jr. and Amos both served in the 68th Enrolled Militia. They say William was wounded, and died of his wounds after the Civil War, but I could find nothing to validate this.

And then there was Holly, who enrolled in the 39th Volunteer Kentucky Infantry (mounted) December 1862, and was mustered on February 12th, 1863, then died March 22nd, 1863. When I found out that he was only in the service for five weeks before dying, I was curious as to what had happened. I got his military papers from the Archives, and found out that he died of some type of disease in the hospital at Louisa, Kentucky.

I started asking questions of people about where the hospital was located in Louisa, and Dr. John Ryan, a local historian, told me it was at the First Methodist Church, beside the courthouse. The present church is the third one at this location. I believe it was the second one that was used as a hospital. This is where Holly died of some type of affliction.

I then started asking, “Where did they bury these people?” There were approximately 100 that died there that fall, winter, and spring. Then I found a story in the Lawrence County History Book, printed 1991, about the Civil War cemetery at Peach Orchard. This story relates how a lady, in 1863, tried to find where her husband was buried. The soldier was in Company C of the 39th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. She never found out where it was.

Over the years, I think many people have tried to find this cemetery, with little success. This includes myself. In December of 1999, my enthusiasm clouded my thinking as to where this cemetery was. I was told by Lafe Hinkel, Jr., to get hold of Jerry Lee Fitch of Nat’s Creek, who knew the lay of the land around Peach Orchard very well. We got together a trek to this cemetery that included myself, Jerry Lee Fitch, Dr. John Ryan, Robert Baker, Marlita Perkins, and John Hazelett, and also two other gentleman and several children, whose names I cannot recall. We did find two very old cemeteries, but neither one was what we were looking for. Later on, I think we should have looked in a different area of Peach Orchard, which I will do later. But getting back to the hospital: I thought that they might have buried these soldiers closer to Louisa. The lay of the land in Louisa now has changed so much that it would be extremely hard to pinpoint where this lost cemetery could have been. The following is a story I was told:

There is a shopping center now in Louisa, and on top of the hill behind it, are two cemeteries called Greenlawn One &Two. This is also where Fort Bishop was located. On top of the ill on the north side of the shopping center is the old cemetery called Pine Hill. At that time I didn’t figure the army would take anyone to the top of the hill; instead, would have buried them closer to the bottom where the shopping center and Burger King are now located. I was told by a lady of the DAR that when they changed the road, when they built Burger King, that the bulldozer got into and uncovered many graves. Her father had seen this. I have tried to confirm this, but it seems impossible. I asked her what they did with the remains; she though they may have moved some but covered the rest up.

Could this have been the lost Civil War cemetery? My thinking is that if it’s a civilian cemetery, they would have taken the remains to the top of the hill, where old Pine Hill is now located. This is only my theory, and therefore hearsay. I don’t think, though, that the army moved these bodies very far, since most of them died of disease. This is a terrible thing to say, but I think that to a few people in Lawrence County, money means more than dignity to our deceased kin. Another thing that bothers me: to look up on the hill where Fort Bishop stood and see a radio tower. If it weren’t for the ladies of the DAR, it would probably be worse than it is, as they are trying to record all the cemeteries in Lawrence County. A few horror stories that I was told by one lady of the DAR are of records and paperwork that were thrown out of the courthouse after they were microfilmed; and how the county home records got burnt in a fire; and the way the county has their garage surrounding the County Home cemetery, with very poor access and no records as to who is buried there. Now back to Holly . . .

In July of 1999, I got three other men and myself and went to the Granddaddy cemetery, and proceeded to clean it up. I then erected a Civil War monument for my great-great-uncle, Ralph, and my great-great-grandfather, John Michael. After cleaning the brush, small trees, and other things out of the cemetery, we found approximately 13 marked graves, and about 17 graves marked with fieldstones. The last burial in this cemetery was in 1949, and not much has been done to it since then. It’s not very accessible, being probably about one third of a mile straight up a hill behind Charles Cordle’s house. It was a long, hard walk in July. Since I have never found Holly’s grave, I ran across this very wonderful old word called “cenotaph”. That’s when I got the idea that I would get Holly’s government monument and erect it in the William Cordle cemetery, with the rest of his family, and let it be a cenotaph.

Since I learned how to use the computer in my search and find web sites on Eastern Kentucky, and also books on Eastern Kentucky, I have acquired a very nice library. In fact, probably a day doesn’t go by that I don’t look at E-Bay or Amazon. Out of the five sons of William Cordle who served in the military, I imagine four of them got decent burials from their families. But what happened to Holly at just 17 years old? Did he receive a decent burial? Or was he just put in a hole in the ground and forgotten? My quest to find the final resting place of my great-great-uncle Holly continues.