Background
Hilton was born in Westville, South Carolina, and joined the army in Westville, assigned to Company M, 118th Infantry, 30th Division.
Hilton was born in Westville, South Carolina, and joined the army in Westville, assigned to Company M, 118th Infantry, 30th Division.
All were awarded for bravery in the face of the enemy. On October 11, 1918, while fighting near Brancourt, France, Hilton"s unit was held up by intense machine gun and small arms fire. Sergeant Hilton recognized that the machine gun fire was coming from a shell crater just ahead of them.
Accompanied by several other soldiers, but moving out well ahead of them, Sergeant
Hilton engaged the machine gun, using his rifle until his ammunition ran out, then using his pistol, killing six German soldiers, and capturing ten others In the course of this action he was wounded by an exploding shell, which resulted in the loss of an arm.
After his discharge from the army, he returned home to Kershaw County a hero. He joined the Civitan Club of Columbia, of which he was a proud member.
When asked why he was a Civitan, Hilton replied: That cemetery also maintains the graves of Civil War Confederate Army Generals John Doby Kennedy and Joseph B. Kershaw, as well as Civil War hero Richard Rowland Kirkland.
National Guard 118th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, United States. Army Sergeant during World War I, and a Medal of Honor recipient—the first of two from Kershaw County, South Carolina to be awarded the medal during that war. He was also awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal by Great Britain, the Médaille militaire and Croix de Guerre with Palm by France, the Croce al Merito di Guerre by Italy, the Cruz de Guerra by Portugal, and the Bravery Medal by Montenegro. After his death in 1933, he was buried in "Old Quaker Cemetery" in Camden, South Carolina, which is also the cemetery in which World War I Medal of Honor recipient John Canty Villepigue is buried. He and Villepigue were both assigned to Company M, 118th Infantry, 30th Division, with Villepigue being awarded his Medal of Honor for actions taking place a few days later, on October 15, 1918, which resulted in injuries from which he would later die.
