Thomas Sullivan (Medal of Honor, 1869)

He faced hidden riflemen deep within a rocky Arizona ravine.

Thomas Sullivan was born in Covington, Kentucky, in 1847 and entered the United States Army from Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as a private in Company G, 1st United States Cavalry. His award belongs to the Army’s campaigns against Indigenous peoples in the American Southwest, rather than to the later action associated with another Medal of Honor recipient of the same name.

On 20 October 1869, Sullivan took part in an engagement in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona Territory. The surviving Medal of Honor citation is exceptionally brief: “Gallantry in action against Indians concealed in a ravine.” This is the complete wording reproduced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/thomas-sullivan-1).

The Society records his medal presentation on 20 December 1869. Its recipient record supplies neither his death date nor a burial place.