Pvt. John Cunningham of Company H, US 7th Cavalry, died of dysentery and pleurisy during George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition of 1874, and was buried near Inyan Kara Creek, site of the Expedition's "Camp #19". This gravesite, which he shares with another 7th Cavalry trooper who had also died at this time, is located some 14 miles from Sundance, Wyoming. According to the diary of Pvt. Theodore Ewert, Company H trumpeter, Pvt. Cunningham had become increasing ill over a period of several days, but his requests to be relieved from duty were dismissed by the medical officer in charge. It was only after the long-suffering trooper fell from his horse and collapsed on July 23 that the doctor placed him on sick report. (Ewert states that this medical officer had been too impaired by drink to recognize the seriousness of Cunningham's condition earlier.) By this time, however, Cunningham was too weak to recover. Consigned to an old, uncomfortable ambulance because the newer ones had been reserved for the Expedition's natural history specimens, he died at midnight that evening.
Pvt. John Cunningham of Company H, US 7th Cavalry, died of dysentery and pleurisy during George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition of 1874, and was buried near Inyan Kara Creek, site of the Expedition's "Camp #19". This gravesite, which he shares with another 7th Cavalry trooper who had also died at this time, is located some 14 miles from Sundance, Wyoming. According to the diary of Pvt. Theodore Ewert, Company H trumpeter, Pvt. Cunningham had become increasing ill over a period of several days, but his requests to be relieved from duty were dismissed by the medical officer in charge. It was only after the long-suffering trooper fell from his horse and collapsed on July 23 that the doctor placed him on sick report. (Ewert states that this medical officer had been too impaired by drink to recognize the seriousness of Cunningham's condition earlier.) By this time, however, Cunningham was too weak to recover. Consigned to an old, uncomfortable ambulance because the newer ones had been reserved for the Expedition's natural history specimens, he died at midnight that evening.
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