John W. Cotton

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to John W. Cotton, Captain, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Soissons, France, July 20, 1918. When the advancing infantry line had been held up by heavy artillery and machine-gun fire and all the officers had become casualties, Captain Cotton sent what remained of his machine-gun company to protect the flanks and then voluntarily reorganized the assaulting line, breaking up a hostile counterattack which had been launched from the hill in front of them. Twice during the action he personally led tanks forward in advance of the line and reduced hostile machine-gun nests. As he was leading the attacking waves forward in the face of heavy fire he was seriously wounded in the head by a machine-gun bullet, but he pushed on until he was forced to stop by loss of blood.