First Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing Monument

Description

Sculpted by Gary Casteel
Size:  4” x 1 ½” x 4”
Weight:  .85lbs
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing of Wisconsin was 22 years old when he commanded Battery A of the 4th United States Artillery in General Winfield Hancock’s 2
nd
Corps, at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Cushing’s battery was at the focal point of Pickett’s Charge on July 3rd, 1863.  At approximately 2:30pm., at the height of the charge, a hole opened in the Union line.  Rebel troops poured through the gap at “the Angle.”  However, young and determined First Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing stood directly in their way.  The intense bombardment preceding the attack left Cushing and many of his men wounded by shell fragments and only two of his six guns still serviceable.  Rather than withdraw the remnants of the shattered battery, he obtained permission from General Alexander Webb to move his remaining 3-inch ordnance rifles up to the stone wall, where he and the handful of survivors of the battery fired canister into the advancing Virginians of Pickett’s Division.
Cushing was wounded three times during the assault.  The second wound, a shell fragment which tore open his stomach and groin, was probably fatal.  Cushing was told to go to the rear but refused and he fought on regardless of subordinates’ pleading.  When asked to retire from the field and seek medical treatment, Cushing coolly replied, “No, I stay right here and fight it out or die in the attempt.”  First Sergeant Frederick Fuger held him up and passed on his commands, which he could barely voice.
Cushing remained resolute to the very end.  Right before a Confederate bullet struck Cushing in the head, he gave his final order.  “That’s excellent!” he told his men, “Keep that range."  He died just as the final canister rounds from his battery tore through the advancing enemy lines.   His third wound was a bullet into his mouth and out the back of his head, which killed him instantly.
The legend that Cushing fired the last double-shotted gun seconds before being struck in the mouth with his fatal wound is a small exaggeration.  Sergeant Fuger, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, fired the shot after laying the dying Cushing on the ground.
Though several hundred Virginians under the command of General Lewis Armistead breached the wall where Cushing fell, they were quickly repulsed, and hurled back from whence they came.  The line held strong atop Cemetery Ridge, thanks in part to the valiant efforts of Cushing and his men.
One admirer of Cushing's bravery wrote, "On the field of Gettysburg, more than once I stood where the brave Cushing gave up his life, right at the peak of Pickett's daring charge...History will not let that smiling, splendid boy die in vain; her dew will glisten forever over his record as earthly morning dew glistens on the fields. Fame loves the gentleman and the true-hearted, but her sweetheart is gallant youth."
Though he posthumously received a brevet promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was buried at West Point, Cushing was not formally recognized for his actions by the United States Government for 151 years.  On November 6, 2014, in a special ceremony at the White House, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Lieutenant Cushing the highest military honor that can be bestowed upon a serviceman for gallantry – the Medal of Honor.  The award ceremony came after a nearly three-decade long campaign to have the award bestowed upon him.  Lieutenant Cushing's is the last Medal of Honor to be awarded to a soldier in the Civil War.
This monument was dedicated on July 3, 1887, by the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers and is located south of Gettysburg at The Angle, north of the Copse of Trees.
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