Charlton, Cornelius H.

Source:

 African American National Biography

Charlton, Cornelius H.

(24 July 1929–2 June 1951),

Korean War veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, was born in Eastgulf, Raleigh County, West Virginia, the son of Van Charlton and Clara Thompson. In 1944, at the age of fifteen, Cornelius, called “Connie” by his friends, moved with his family to New York, taking up residence in the Bronx. There he graduated from Monroe High School in 1946. Charlton soon thereafter joined the U.S. Army, serving in an engineering outfit and stationed in Germany as part of the post–World War II occupation forces. Deciding to make a career for himself in the army, Charlton reenlisted in 1950 and was sent overseas to serve in the Korean War.

Charlton's service in the Korean War serves to highlight the black experience in this often forgotten conflict whose combatants seldom receive their proper due. The valuable service of black soldiers and sailors in World War II as well as rising political pressure persuaded President Harry Truman to desegregate the military as a whole in 1947 with the issuance of Executive Order 9981. However, despite the valiant World War II service of such all-black army units as the Ninety-second and Ninety-third Divisions in Italy and the Pacific, which produced a number of men such as John Fox and Edward Carter who belatedly received the Medal of Honor, segregated regiments were usually the subject of harsh postwar criticism for their so-called overall poor performance. Significantly this criticism usually emanated from white officers who chose to deride the service of black soldiers as a whole while failing to recognize any weak leadership exhibited by white officers. By the time the Korean War began in 1950, integration in the army, despite the increased number of black soldiers, had changed little. Although blacks were assigned to combat units at nearly the same ratio as whites, most still served in segregated units that had too many men because the army's segregation policies did not allow them to be assigned to combat units with white soldiers. With black enlistment in the army exceeding 12 percent and far outdistancing that of the other service branches, change was inevitable. The unit in which Charlton fought would play a role, somewhat paradoxically, in bringing true integration to the U.S. Army.

Following his arrival in Korea, Charlton was assigned with his engineering regiment to a noncombat area behind the American front lines. However, Sergeant Charlton wanted to take part in the fighting and requested transfer to a combat unit; he was assigned to Company C of the Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment, Twenty-fifth Division, Eighth Army. This was a segregated unit that was famous for its service in the Pacific during World War II. As squad leader, Charlton was stationed with his men in the vicinity of Seoul, South Korea, at Chipo-Ri. On 2 June 1951 the Korean position on Hill 543 was attacked by the men of the Twenty-fourth Regiment. With his leader wounded and subsequently evacuated, Charlton led-the assault amid heavy fire and was severely wounded. Nevertheless, he continued alone and, despite being hit by a grenade, successfully routed the enemy. Following this determined and heroic action, Charlton (later known as “the Hero of Hill 543”) succumbed to his wounds at a field hospital. For his “indomitable courage, superb leadership, and gallant self sacrifice,” Charlton was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on 24 January 1952. His remains were eventually returned to West Virginia for burial in a family plot in Pocahontas Cemetery near Bramwell.

Despite Charlton's heroism as well that of another Medal of Honor winner, Private William Thompson, the Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment came under a different kind of fire from within the army itself. Although individual men of the regiment were noted for their heroism, the unit as a whole was said to have “performed poorly,” and was considered a “weak link” in the Twenty-fifth Division's line. Some officers claimed that the men of the Twenty-fourth were malingerers or “prone to panic,” but still others asserted that the unit's problems lay not with its men but with the leadership of the white officers and their discrimination against its black officers. In reality the situation was almost the same as the one that existed in World War II and revealed the truly demoralizing effect segregation and discrimination continued to exert over the U.S. Army's black soldiers. Fortunately the one difference that helped resolve the situation was the fact that many combat officers were in favor of integration and made no attempt to question the combat ability of black troops, as was widely done after World War II. As a result of the army's integration efforts, just a month after Charlton's death the Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment was deactivated on 1 October 1951 and its men transferred to fully integrated infantry units. Ironically, the phasing out of his regiment may be viewed as one of the lasting legacies of Charlton's achievement.

Charlton lay forgotten for many years in an abandoned cemetery. In 1990 he was reburied in the American Legion Military Cemetery in Beckley, West Virginia, with full military honors and was given a headstone reflecting his status as a Medal of Honor winner.

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