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Monday is Memorial Day. The United States has fought twelve major wars and numerous smaller skirmishes in its history. Memorial Day is how we honor the soldiers, sailors, airmen, airwomen, marines, and coast guardsmen who did not return home. The holiday dates back to the months immediately following the Civil War when a few towns and cities began honoring their dead. In 1868, General John A. Logan—at the time the head of an organization for Union veterans, later a U.S. senator from Illinois, and the man for whom Logan Circle in Washington, DC, is named—called for May 30 to be designated “Decoration Day.” He said the purpose would be for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” With America’s entry into World War I, the purpose of the holiday shifted to honor all Americans who died fighting in the nation’s wars. The term “Decoration Day” increasingly gave way to “Memorial Day,” a switch that Congress enshrined in law in 1967. The following year, Congress decreed that, as of 1971, Memorial Day is to be commemorated on the last Monday in May.
Long-time readers of The Water’s Edge know that every Memorial Day I tell the stories of service members who died in the service of the United States. The Stories Behind the Stars, the epic effort to remember every one of the more than 400,000 Americans who died in World War II, provides a powerful reminder that the story of every service member who gave their life for their country deserves to be told—and remembered. In recognition of the fact that 2025 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the start of the Korean War, I want to tell the story of one American who did not come home from that conflict.
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Sergeant Cornelius H. “Connie” Charlton was born on July 24, 1929, in East Gulf, West Virginia, an unincorporated community located seventy-five miles southeast of the state capital of Charleston. He was one of seventeen children. When he was fifteen, his parents moved to the Bronx, New York. He wanted to enlist to fight in World War II. However, his parents refused to give him the permission he needed and insisted that he finish school. He graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx in 1946. With his high school diploma in hand, his parents signed the papers allowing him to join the U.S. Army. He did so even though, as an African American, he would be joining a segregated force.
Charlton completed his basic training in November 1946. His first assignment was in Germany as part of the post-war occupation force. He completed his tour of duty and re-enlisted. After a stint at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, he was assigned to occupation forces in Okinawa. When the Korean War began, Charlton requested a transfer to a combat unit. His request was granted.
Charlton’s new assignment was with Company C, First Battalion, Twenty-Fourth Infantry. The 24th Infantry Regiment was the Army’s last all-Black regiment. (In 1948, President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. military desegregated. It took three years to integrate all the services.) The 24th Infantry Regiment traced its history back to the creation of the first all-Black regiments after the American Civil War that fought against Native American tribes and became known as “Buffalo Soldiers.”
On June 2, 1951, Company C was tasked with taking a heavily defended position atop a hill near Chipo-ri, North Korea. Charlton assumed command of the assault team after the company’s commanding officer was wounded and evacuated. Charlton killed six enemy soldiers on the climb up the hill before heavy fire pinned down the company. He was hit by shrapnel from a grenade and suffered a severe chest wound. He refused medical treatment and instead led a charge that claimed the top of the hill. Upon seeing that his men were still taking fire, he charged at enemy soldiers on the far slope. He routed the defenders but was mortally wounded when he was hit by another grenade. He was two months shy of his twenty-second birthday.
Sergeant Charlton was awarded the Medal of Honor in recognition of his heroism at Chipo-ri. His Medal of Honor citation reads: “His indomitable courage, superb leadership, and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry, and the military service.” He is now buried at American Legion Cemetery in Beckley, West Virginia. On December 11, 1999, the U.S. Navy christened the USNS Charlton in his honor. Charlton’s Medal of Honor is now part of the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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I hope that on this Memorial Day you will remember Sergeant Charlton and the many other Americans who gave their lives for our freedom.
Other posts in this series:
Remembering a Fallen Hero on Memorial Day (2024)
Remembering Those Whom Memorial Day Honors (2023)
Remembering Those Whom Memorial Day Honors (2022)
Remembering Those Whom Memorial Day Honors (2021)
Remembering Those Whom Memorial Day Honors (2020)
Remembering Those Memorial Day Honors (2019)
Remembering Those Memorial Day Honors (2018)
Remembering Whom Memorial Day Honors (2017)
TWE Remembers: Memorial Day (2016)
TWE Remembers: Memorial Day (2014)
TWE Remembers: Memorial Day (2013)
TWE Remembers: Memorial Day (2012)
Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this post.