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Note: John Hilt served in the Civil War as a Private in the 4th Iowa Cavalry, Company G, mustering in on 1 Sep 1862 at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
Hilt joined the regiment in the field at Helena, Arkansas on 23 Nov 1862. In May and June of 1863 the regiment was a part of Major General U. S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee, under Colonel E. F. Winslow, seeing action in Mississippi at Raymond, Jackson, Birdsong's Ferry and 14 Mile Creek during the Vicksburg Campaign. Hilt became sick and was furloughed for seven months in Sep 1863. The entire regiment was granted a 30 day furlough in Iowa in early 1864. After his recovery, Hilt returned to the regiment at their headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee at the end of the furlough and all were listed as 'Veteran Volunteers'.
William Tecumseh Sherman took command of the Army of the Tennessee and the 4th was assigned to Major General McPherson's 17th Army, Cavalry Brigade, during Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. In May of 1864 Brigadier General Sturgis was given two Divisions and Winslow's Cavalry Brigade to guard McPherson's southern flank. On 10 June 1864 they met General Nathan Bedford Forrest at Brice's Crossroads, Mississippi and were badly beaten. The 4th Iowa and Company G are specifically mentioned in dispatches to higher headquarters describing their gallant efforts at the center of the battle, laying down cover fire and guarding the rear of the retreating army. After the battle General Sturgis faced a Board of Inquiry for his actions.
The 4th Iowa was later hand-picked for a campaign in Missouri, along with the 3rd Iowa and the 10th Missouri Cavalry, fighting brilliantly at the Battle of the Osage. Several members of both the 3rd and 4th Iowa Cavalry are decorated with the Medal of Honor for capturing battle flags and senior enemy officers. The unit returned to Benton Barracks, St. Louis Missouri in November of 1864 and Hilt was hospitalized again on 9 December where he served out his term of enlistment.
At the close of the war the unit was moved up the Ohio River to Louisville and on to Nashville and fought gallantly. The 4th was involved in some of the last engagements of the war at Columbus and Atlanta, Georgia and was at Edgefield, Tennessee when the war ended. Hilt was mustered out 15 Jun 1865 at St. Louis, Missouri.
After the war, Hilt returned to Iowa and married. About 1870 he and his family, along with his parents, moved west to homestead a parcel of land in Olive Branch Precinct in the southwest corner of Lancaster County, Nebraska.
John, along with the Thomas Ivers family, moved to Rooks County, Kansas by early 1874. He homesteaded 160 acres on the S. Solomon river in Iowa Township, just east of Stockton. John and Jane's twins, Joseph and Edgar, and the two youngest children were born there. While in Stockton, John served at least four years as County Coroner.
By 1889 they had moved to Boise, Ada, Idaho, by train, as described in letters from Mabel Ivers Scott, John's niece (she was born to Polly Hilt and Tom Ivers in Boise in 1890). John's death certificate, with information provided from his daughter, Addie, stated he was born in Kentucky and his father was born in Scotland. She may have been remembering a family story that the Hilt's were of Scotch descent, but Jesse himself reflected in several censuses that he was born in Ohio.
John was buried in the 'Silent Camp' section of Morris Hill Cemetery, reserved for Civil War soldiers. His wife Ruhamah is buried nearby.
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