The most famous battle in American History is the Battle of Gettysburg. On the first days of July in 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac under Gen. George Meade defeated the Army of Northern Virginia led by Gen. Robert E. Lee. The climactic attack was Pickett’s Charge. 15,000 Confederates attempted to break the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. The defeat of the attack marked “the high-water mark of the Confederacy.” Meade’s victory assured the North of inevitable victory in the war. Although the attack had little chance of success, one has to credit the Union defenders for valiantly throwing back the onslaught. 34 Yankee soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for bravery on July 3, 1863. The majority of the recipients either captured a Confederate flag or carried a Union flag in the battle. Surprisingly, the last soldier to get the Medal probably was one of the bravest. He was the only recipient to die in the battle.
Alonzo Cushing was the youngest of four brothers who fought in the Civil War. He graduated from West Point in 1861. He joined the artillery and participated in the Battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was brevetted to major after the Battle of Chancellorsville and put in charge of a battery of 6 cannons with 126 men. On the third day of Gettysburg, his cannons were in the middle of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. You could excuse him for thinking 15,000 rebel-yelling Confederates were coming at him. His unit was down to two cannons due to fire from Confederate artillery, but before the Rebel infantry attacked, he moved his last two forward to aid the Yankee infantry. He was already injured by shrapnel in the shoulder and in his abdomen. It was a grievous and painful injury, but he refused to seek medical help. He continued to command while he held his intestines in. Cushing and his men waited for the Rebels to get within a hundred yards and then started blasting them with cannister. As Gen. Armstead approached with his hat on his sword, Cushing was hit in the head by a minie ball and killed. He was 22-years-old. Armstead and his few men reached the battery, but that’s as far as they got and the Confederacy reached its high-water mark.
After the battle, Cushing was given a posthumous promotion to Lt. Colonel. Not to downplay the bravery of others, but he certainly deserved the Medal of Honor over most of the soldiers who captured flags. For some reason, his valor was overlooked until 1987 when Margaret Zerwekh began a letter-writing campaign to get her congressman to nominate him for the award. For over a decade, her letters did not move the needle. In 2002, Sen. Russ Feingold nominated Cushing for consideration by the Army. It was not until 2010 that the investigation recommended him for the decoration. On Nov. 6, 2014, 151 years late, President Obama presented the Medal to a relative of Cushing.
In his famous poem “John Brown’s Body”, Stephen Vincent Benet included a stanza commemorating Cushing’s death at Gettysburg:
“Cushing ran down the last of his guns to the battle-line.
The rest had been smashed to scrap by Lee’s artillery fire.
He held his guts in his hand as the charge came up to the wall,
And his gun spoke out for him once before he fell to the ground.”
Here is Cushing’s citation:
First Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing distinguished himself by acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an artillery commander in Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 3rd, 1863 during the American Civil War.
That morning, Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee began cannonading First Lieutenant Cushing’s position on Cemetery Ridge. Using field glasses, First Lieutenant Cushing directed fire for his own artillery battery. He refused to leave the battlefield after being struck in the shoulder by a shell fragment. As he continued to direct fire, he was struck again – this time suffering grievous damage to his abdomen.
Still refusing to abandon his command, he boldly stood tall in the face of Major General George E. Pickett’s charge and continued to direct devastating fire into oncoming forces. As the Confederate forces closed in, First Lieutenant Cushing was struck in the mouth by an enemy bullet and fell dead beside his gun.
His gallant stand and fearless leadership inflicted severe casualties upon Confederate forces and opened wide gaps in their lines, directly impacting the Union force’s ability to repel Pickett’s charge. First Lieutenant Cushing’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his own life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Army of the Potomac, and the United States Army.
P.S. Cushing’s Sergeant Frederick Fuger was also awarded the Medal of Honor. Fuger, who fought in 63 battles and skirmishes and was wounded twice in the war, held Cushing up when he was grievously wounded and yelled his orders to the battery. He took command when Cushing died.
https://mohmuseum.org/gettysburg/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Cushing
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