He was assigned to Company G of the 8th Cavalry Regiment and sent to the Arizona Territory where he saw considerable action during the Apache Wars. He particularly distinguished himself during the campaign against Cochise in late-1869. On October 5, he was part of a small cavalry detachment from Fort Bowie, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Winters and Captain Reuben F. Bernard, in pursuit of an Apacheraiding party. Earlier that day, these Apaches had massacred a stage coach en route to Tucson and then attacked a group of cowboys in Sulphur Springs Valley. His unit eventually caught up to them at Cochise's stronghold in Chiricahua Mountains, above Rucker Canyon, where they engaged in a major battle, later known as the "Campaign of the Rocky Mesa", on October 20, 1869.
Tracy was cited for "gallantry in action" and one of thirty-two members of the 1st and 8th U.S. Cavalry who received the Medal of Honor four months later.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
He died on May 29, 1918, at age 69 and was interred at the Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum in St. Louis, Missouri. Tracy remained buried in an unmarked grave for nearly a century before a campaign, headed by Connie Nisinger in the spring of 2003, eventually resulted in an official Medal of Honor headstone being placed at his grave site.[10]
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: St. Paul, Minn. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 14 February 1870.
^Beyer, Walter F. and Oscar Frederick Keydel, ed. Deeds of Valor: From Records in the Archives of the United States Government; how American Heroes Won the Medal of Honor; History of Our Recent Wars and Explorations, from Personal Reminiscences and Records of Officers and Enlisted Men who Were Rewarded by Congress for Most Conspicuous Acts of Bravery on the Battle-field, on the High Seas and in Arctic Explorations. Vol. 2. Detroit: Perrien-Keydel Company, 1906. (p. 553)
^Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Medal of Honor recipients, 1863–1978, 96th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1979. (pp. 974, 1021)
^Hannings, Bud. A Portrait of the Stars and Stripes. Glenside, Pennsylvania: Seniram Publishing, 1988. (p. 400) ISBN0922564000
^O'Neal, Bill. Fighting Men of the Indian Wars: A Biographical Encyclopedia of the Mountain Men, Soldiers, Cowboys, and Pioneers Who Took Up Arms During America's Westward Expansion. Stillwater, Oklahoma: Barbed Wire Press, 1991. (p. 26) ISBN093526907X
^Owens, Ron. Medal of Honor: Historical Facts & Figures. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company, 2004. (p. 192) ISBN1563119951
^Yenne, Bill. Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2006. (p. 141) ISBN1594160163
^Nunnally, Michael L. American Indian Wars: A Chronology of Confrontations Between Native Peoples and Settlers and the United States Military, 1500s–1901. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2007. ISBN0786429364
^Sterner, C. Douglas (1999). "MOH Citation for John Tracy". MOH Recipients: Indian Campaigns. HomeofHeroes.com. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
Konstantin, Phil. This Day in North American Indian History: Important Dates in the History of North America's Native Peoples for Every Calendar Day. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. ISBN0306811707
