Saturday, May 22, 2010
Alonzo Cushing (photo: Wisconsin Historical Society)
As heroics go, what First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing did for the Union army during the Civil War was nothing short of pivotal. In charge of a battery in the 4th U.S. Artillery, Cushing found himself commanding about 110 men who had to guard Cemetery Ridge during the battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.
Gettysburg turned out to be the turning point in the Civil War. Had Confederate forces prevailed during the three-day battle, the South could have gone on to win the war. It all came down to a key engagement known as Pickett’s Charge, in which 13,000 Confederate soldiers attacked the Union lines.
Preceding the charge was a torrential hail of artillery fire on Cushing’s position. Twice wounded, Cushing held his men together and, in fact, ordered his canons forward to help stop the Confederate advance.
Cushing died during the attack. A monument to Cushing and his two brothers was erected in Delafield, Wisconsin, in 1915. However, over the decades, his leadership under fire became forgotten until a historian learned of the Cushing’s actions. After a prolonged lobbying campaign, Army officials decided to award Cushing the Medal of Honor, making him one of more than 1,500 soldiers from the Civil War to receive the nation’s highest military commendation. The announcement was the culmination of a 23-year crusade by Margaret Zerwekh, now 90 years old, who lives on the land once owned by the Cushing family.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
147 Years Later, Wis. Civil War Soldier Gets Medal(by Dinesh Ramde, Associated Press)
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