Pvt. Turner of Company M, US 7th Cavalry, lost his life in a shootout with Pvt. William Roller (a.k.a. Ritter), also of Company M, who mortally wounded him in the abdomen. The fatal showdown, which occurred during George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition of 1874, ended a feud between the two troopers that had begun years earlier. Pvt. Turner's body was subsequently wrapped in canvas, covered with lime, and buried here on Inyan Kara Creek, near the Expedition's "Camp #19". He shares this gravesite, which is app. 14 miles from present day Sundance, Wyoming, with Pvt. John Cunningham, who had died of disease. After the funeral service was read and the cavalrymen's graves were closed, fires were set to conceal the plots--a measure taken to prevent their remains from being disinterred by Indians.
Pvt. Turner of Company M, US 7th Cavalry, lost his life in a shootout with Pvt. William Roller (a.k.a. Ritter), also of Company M, who mortally wounded him in the abdomen. The fatal showdown, which occurred during George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition of 1874, ended a feud between the two troopers that had begun years earlier. Pvt. Turner's body was subsequently wrapped in canvas, covered with lime, and buried here on Inyan Kara Creek, near the Expedition's "Camp #19". He shares this gravesite, which is app. 14 miles from present day Sundance, Wyoming, with Pvt. John Cunningham, who had died of disease. After the funeral service was read and the cavalrymen's graves were closed, fires were set to conceal the plots--a measure taken to prevent their remains from being disinterred by Indians.
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