"Poor Charlie"

"Poor Charlie". Mill Springs Battlefield. Soon after the first shots of the battle were exchanged at Timmy's Branch, Confederate surgeons set up a field hospital in a small log house that stood here. Some of the wounded found their own way here; friends carried others. One of the last soldiers brought here was Charlie Clemenson of the 19th Tennessee. He was left at the hospital by three friends as the defeated Confederate army retreated.

Poor Charlie was Dying , Years later W.J. Worsham recalled that day: "Pink Henderson, Clabe Perry and the writer carried Charlie from the field in a blanket .... Poor Charlie was dying when we laid him down. We can never forget the sad anxious expression of his face as we left him in his last sad trial of life, dying alone deserted by all, whom he thought were his friends, left on the cold ground with naught but the cold rain to wash his brow."

Buried in Unmarked Graves , Union troops captured the hospital, the wounded, and three surgeons who were unwilling to desert the men in their care. Charlie Clemenson and several others later died here. Federal soldiers buried the dead in unmarked graves in a small family cemetery near the house. The blood stains on the floor were still visible when the house was razed in the 1940s.

Inset drawing: Poor Charlie was dying when we laid him down. We can never forget the sad anxious expression of his face as we left him in his last sad trial of life, dying alone deserted by all, whom he thought were his friends....