Sergeant Nicholas "Sam" Foran (June 3, 1844 – September 29, 1927) was an American soldier in the U.S. Army who served with the 8th U.S. Cavalry during the Apache Wars.
He was one of thirty-four men who received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in several engagements against the Apache Indians in the Arizona Territory from August to October 1868.
In the late summer and fall of 1868, Foran was part of a small cavalry detachment ordered to secure settlements and protect the Arizona Territory from Apache raiding parties.
[5][9] His a biography of his life, in which he was praised as a "typical trail blazer and a Western pioneer", was published in the Evening Courier three days after his death.
Although a special government project had started marking gravesites in 1976, it would take nearly 8 years before Foran was confirmed as an award recipient in the fall of 1983 by the Medal of Honor Historical Society in Alexandria, Virginia.