Alfred Hilton lived at his father's farm on Gravel Hill Road until August 1863, when he enlisted in Company H., 4th United States Colored Troops. He fought with distinction in several engagements in Virginia. As the national Color Sergeant, he was mortally wounded on September 29th, 1864, at the Battle of New Market Heights, outside Richmond, and died three weeks later at a military hospital at Fort Monroe. He lies buried at Hampton National Cemetery, Va. In April 1865 the War Department posthumously granted Hilton the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of only 16 awards given to African-Americans in the Civil War. The citation reads as follows:"When the regimental color fell, this soldier seized the color and carried it forward, together with the national standard until disabled at the enemy's inner line."
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