Richmond H. Hilton

He silenced a machine gun at Brancourt

Richmond Hobson Hilton came from Westville, South Carolina. He left school to serve on the Mexican border with the South Carolina National Guard. After six months on the border he returned home. When the United States entered the First World War, he rejoined his Guard company and spent months training and instructing recruits at Camp Sevier. His unit became Company M, 118th Infantry Regiment, 30th Division. It went overseas in May 1918.

On 11 October 1918, as the company advanced through Brancourt in France, fire from a machine gun stopped its progress. Hilton identified the emplacement among shell holes and moved ahead of the men accompanying him. He fired his rifle until its ammunition was gone, then continued with his pistol. His assault killed six enemy soldiers and brought the surrender of ten more. A shell burst wounded him so severely that surgeons amputated his forearm.

After treatment in France, England and the United States, Hilton received his discharge on 21 March 1919. His Medal of Honor was presented at Camp Gordon, Georgia. He returned to his studies, graduated from the University of South Carolina law school in 1924 and was admitted to the bar. He served as South Carolina's American Legion commander and drowned in Lake Murray on 13 August 1933. He was buried in Camden's Quaker Cemetery.

His Medal of Honor citation credits him with pressing forward “well in advance” of his companions after he located the machine gun.