Every year at this time we pause to remember soldiers who gave their all, men and women who have died while serving our country in the armed forces.
Cornelius “Connie” Charlton made the ultimate sacrifice, but his contribution was nearly forgotten.
Charlton was born in 1929 in the small coal town of East Gulf in Raleigh County. When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to the Bronx, New York, where he graduated from high school in 1946.
Connie wanted to be a soldier, so he enlisted in the Army where he rose to the rank of sergeant. During the Korean War, Connie was with an engineering company safely in the rear, but he requested a transfer to infantry.
He was assigned to the 24th Regiment, the last remaining all-black unit in the Army. According to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History Archives, on June 2, 1951, 65 years ago Thursday, Connie took command of his unit during the fight for hill 543 after the platoon commander was wounded.
Connie “knocked out two enemy positions and killed six. Even though he had suffered a serious chest wound, Charlton led a third charge to capture the hill. Without regard for his own safety, he personally attacked the last enemy position.”
However, Connie’s wounds were fatal. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest recognition for a soldier.
But not long after that, Connie’s deeds were largely forgotten. He was buried in a black cemetery near the West Virginia-Virginia state line, which fell into disrepair after the caretaker died. The West Virginia Archives records say it wasn’t until almost four decades later that the national Medal of Honor Society “launched a two-year campaign to locate the lost graves of heroes and Charlton’s grave was rediscovered.”
Today a park in the Bronx is named in his honor. In 1999 a Navy cargo ship was christened the USNS Charlton. A bridge on I-77 over Bluestone Gorge in Mercer County bears his name. And, perhaps most importantly, Charlton now lies with his fellow honored soldiers.
In 2008, Connie’s remains were buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, making him the first black
Medal of Honor decorated Korean War veteran to be buried there, 57 years after he died on that hill in Korea.
On not only Memorial Day, but every day, it is appropriate to remember Cornelius Charlton and all soldiers who, as President Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “gave the last full measure of devotion.”
