Background
Sutton was born in Urbanna, Virginia, on February 18, 1871, the oldest of four children of Thomas E. and Ellen Sutton. His father Thomas worked as a merchant.
Sutton was born in Urbanna, Virginia, on February 18, 1871, the oldest of four children of Thomas E. and Ellen Sutton. His father Thomas worked as a merchant.
Virginia Military Institute.
Sutton entered the Virginia Military Institute on August 18, 1885. Sutton joined the Marine Corps from Washington, District of Columbia in June 1899, and served in the Philippine-American War. By July 13, 1900, he had reached the rank of sergeant and was serving in Tianjin (then known to Americans as "Tientsin"), China, in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion.
Sutton resigned from the military in about 1909 due to illness, after reaching the rank of first sergeant.
He died seven years later on October 9, 1916, at age 45 and was buried in site 18847 section 17, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. The small garrison of Marines stationed in Tientsin found themselves under attack and outnumbered by the nationalists (boxers), who were determined to "drive the foreign devils" out.
A multinational military force from the Eight-Nation Alliance whose members were Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States consisting of 50,000 troops were sent to Tientsin to reinforce the troops already there. On June 21, 1900, the Boxers were entrenched on the outskirts of Tientsin.
On July 13, 1900, a major skirmish occurred between Sutton"s unit, the First United States. Infantry Regiment, and the Boxers.
They were able to take Major Regan to a field hospital three miles away from the location where he was wounded. "lieutenant was with the greatest of difficulty and persistence in their noble work that they got me off the field They placed me on an improvised litter made of two flannel shirts and two rifles.
I was a heavy man and with the greatest of care over the roughest kind of ground, under fire, they carried me to the Marine Hospital in the city, a distance of about three miles..Such men are worthy of all the distinction the Government can confer upon them." After serving in the Boxer Rebellion, Sutton and Foley were sent to the Marine garrison located in Cavite, in the Philippine Islands.
Among Sutton"s decorations and medals were the following:.
He was forced to repeat his first year there, becoming a member of the class of 1890, and resigned from the school in 1888 before graduating.