Eugene Hussey died in the Spanish-American War. His grave is both common and uncommon. Finding a marker for a Spanish-American War veteran isn’t that hard – as long as you are looking at cemeteries that were active at the turn of the 20th century, there were approximately 300,000 United States troops who served during war (although the short duration of the war, from April until December of 1898, meant that some saw little action). Of those, about 3500 died, but less than 400 were killed in action, making a marker that denotes a war death a rarity. Unfortunately, the most common cause of death for U.S. soldiers and sailors in the Spanish-American War was disease, which is likely what killed young Hussey. The unit history of the 1st Illinois Volunteer Infantry notes no combat deaths, but 84 deaths from what they call tropical diseases.
