James Sumner ( Medal of Honor ) James Sumner ( 1840 – July 5 , 1912 ) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military ' s highest decoration , the Medal of Honor , for his actions in the Indian Wars of the western United States . An English immigrant , Sumner served as a cavalryman during the Apache Wars of southeastern Arizona Territory . He was awarded the Medal of Honor for advancing through heavy fire in a skirmish against a group of Chiricahua Indians led by Cochise . Early life and career . A native of London , England , Sumner immigrated to the United States and joined the Army from Chicago . He served as a private in Company G of the 1st Cavalry Regiment and was stationed at Fort Bowie in southeastern Arizona Territory during the Apache Wars . Medal of Honor action . On October 6 , 1869 , a group of Chiricahua warriors led by Cochise ambushed a Tucson - bound mail stagecoach near Dragoon Springs , on the northern end of the Dragoon Mountains . After killing and mutilating the single passenger and four escorting soldiers , the group attacked six cowboys , killing one , and stole 120 of their cattle . A cavalry patrol dispatched from Fort Bowie chased the Indians into the Chiricahua Mountains and , after a running fight which resulted in a dozen dead warriors , recovered the cattle . Sumner was part of a second patrol , composed of men from Company G , 1st Cavalry , and Company G , 8th Cavalry , which was sent out on the night of October 16 to continue the chase . The 61 - man patrol , commanded by Captain Reuben F . Bernard , returned to the scene of the earlier fight and tracked Cochise and his warriors high into the mountains . After finding an abandoned campsite on October 20 and continuing along a faint trail , the troopers came under fire from Indians positioned atop a rocky mesa flanked by deep canyons . Under orders from Captain Bernard , Sumner and others dismounted and charged up the steep side of the mesa , taking heavy fire the entire way . They reached a low ledge from the Apaches and were pinned down by combined bow and gun fire ; two troopers were killed and one wounded . Bernard attempted to flank the Indians with another group of soldiers but found their position to be impregnable — the warriors held the high ground and had good cover from large boulders on the mesa top . Unable to advance and with the patrol ' s horses exposed to hostile fire , Bernard ordered a withdrawal . The skirmish resulted in eighteen dead Apaches . Bernard recommended all 32 troopers who had charged up the mesa for the Medal of Honor . Sumner ' s medal was awarded four months after the battle , on February 14 , 1870 . His official citation reads simply : " Gallantry in action " . Later life and legacy . After his military service , Sumner moved to California where he lived first in Los Angeles and then in Oxnard . He never married and had no children . Sumner died at age 72 of kidney failure at a hospital in Ventura and was buried there in St . Mary ' s Cemetery . Falling into disrepair after years of neglect , St . Mary ' s Cemetery was taken over by the city of Ventura in the early 1960s and converted to a park . Most of the grave markers were removed , however roughly 3 , 000 bodies were never disinterred . Cemetery Memorial Park , as it is now known , is dotted with a few dozen remaining grave markers , including Sumner ' s bronze plaque headstone . The condition of Sumner ' s grave site received media attention in mid - 2010 , when the Ventura parks and recreation commission deferred and later rejected a request to move his remains to Bakersfield National Cemetery . Supporters of the move called the situation " disrespectful , " noting that Cemetery Memorial Park had become a popular place for locals to walk their dogs and that the animals defecate on and near Sumner ' s grave . The commission stated its intention to commemorate those buried in the park , however this effort has been long delayed .