Cecil H Bolton
On the 7th of October, 1908, Cecil was born in Crawfordville, Florida. Like other stories, I was unable to find a lot of information regarding his life, other than he was married twice, first in 1935 to Babbette De Fronch who died in 1939 and then to Bessie McNabb in 1939 and from what I could find, they had no children. After graduating from high school, Cecil worked in the hotel and restaurant service before enlisting as a Private in the US Army on the 27th of July of 1942, in Ft McClellan near Anniston, Alabama. He deployed to Europe in support of World War 2 and it was his actions here that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
As leader of the weapons platoon of Company E, 413th Infantry, on the night of November 2, 1944, he fought gallantly in a pitched battle which followed the crossing of the Mark River in the Netherlands. When 2 machineguns pinned down his company, he tried to eliminate, with mortar fire, their grazing fire which was inflicting serious casualties and preventing the company's advance from an area rocked by artillery shelling. In the moonlight it was impossible for him to locate accurately the enemy's camouflaged positions; but he continued to direct fire until wounded severely in the legs and rendered unconscious by a German shell. When he recovered consciousness he instructed his unit and then crawled to the forward rifle platoon positions. Taking a two-man bazooka team on his voluntary mission, he advanced chest deep in chilling water along a canal toward 1 enemy machinegun. While the bazooka team covered him, he approached alone to within 15 yards of the hostile emplacement in a house. He charged the remaining distance and killed the 2 gunners with hand grenades. Returning to his men he led them through intense fire over open ground to assault the second German machinegun. An enemy sniper who tried to block the way was dispatched, and the trio pressed on. When discovered by the machinegun crew and subjected to direct fire, 1st Lt. Bolton killed 1 of the 3 gunners with carbine fire, and his 2 comrades shot the others. Continuing to disregard his wounds, he led the bazooka team toward an 88-mm. artillery piece which was having telling effect on the American ranks, and approached once more through icy canal water until he could dimly make out the gun's silhouette. Under his fire direction, the two soldiers knocked out the enemy weapon with rockets. On the way back to his own lines he was again wounded. To prevent his men being longer subjected to deadly fire, he refused aid and ordered them back to safety, painfully crawling after them until he reached his lines, where he collapsed. 1st Lt. Bolton's heroic assaults in the face of vicious fire, his inspiring leadership, and continued aggressiveness even through suffering from serious wounds, contributed in large measure to overcoming strong enemy resistance and made it possible for his battalion to reach its objective.
Cecil received the Medal of Honor ten months later on the 1st of September, 1945, and while a few sources said that he served during the Korean War, I was unable to find any record of him doing so. The last record I could find was a promotion list saying that he was a Lieutenant Colonel on the 14th of May, 1951. Cecil Hamilton Bolton died on the 22nd of January, 1965 at the age of 56. According to his gravestone, he had reached the rank of Colonel and he and his wife Bessie, who died thirteen years later, are buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas: Section PC, Grave 22-J.
