"Poor Charlie"

"Poor Charlie". . , The Battle - Confederate Retreat, During the battle a small one room log cabin stood here (the foundation stones are still visible). Retreating Federal pickets made a brief but desperate stand in and around this cabin at the beginning of the battle. This action slowed the Confederate advance giving the Federal army time to rush troops forward to meet the advancing Confederates., As soon as the Federal pickets were pushed back Confederate surgeons occupied the cabin and set up a field hospital. This hospital operated throughout the battle treating wounded soldiers. some came here on their own and others were carried here by friends. One of the last to be brought here was Charlie Clemenson of the 19th Tennessee. He was left at the hospital by his friends as the defeated Confederate army was retreating past this site. W.J. Worsham was one of the men who brought Charlie here and describes the scene. "Pink Henderson, Clabe Perry and the writer carried Charlie from the field in a blanket....Poor Charlie was dying as when we laid him down. We can never forget the sad anxious expression of his face as we left him in his last sad trail of life, dying alone deserted by all, who he thought were friends, left on the cold ground with naught but the cold rain to wash the sweat of death for his brow.", The Federals captured the hospital along with most of the Confederate wounded and the Confederate surgeons (including Zollicoffer's personal surgeon), who would not retreat with the army and leave the wounded behind. Several of these wounded including Charlie Clemenson would die here. They were buried in unmarked graves in a small cemetery next to the cabin (the cemetery is in the open field in front of the barn). Through the years all the headstones in the cemetery have been destroyed. The hospital cabin itself with blood stained floors stood until the 1940's when it was torn down.