1LT Alonzo Cushing

Courage, grit, determination, and tenacity, embraced by a culture of trust and respect. 

What selfless service is all about.[1]

In July 1, 2 and 3 1863, perhaps the most significant battle of the U.S. Civil War was fought on the grounds of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  The Union persevered and won the battle, reversing for the first time in two years a strong Confederate Army that seemed at the time invincible.  The commander of the Confederate Army was General Robert E. Lee, and he brought his Army north of the Mason Dixon Line to interdict the Union’s strong industrial belt in Pennsylvania and New York, and to bring the war into the north’s home terrain with the hopes to gain a decisive victory and demoralize the north’s will to continue the fight.  Lee was met by the Army of the Potomac commanded by General George Meade and after three days was decisively defeated and forced to retreat.  Gettysburg is often referred to as the “high water mark”, because it was the battle that culminated a series of victories by Lee’s Confederate Army and began the two-year descent ultimately leading to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865.  The significance of this battle cannot be overstated, because it was this defeat that ultimately led to the preservation of our Republic as we know it today. 

There are numerous significant events that led to the Union’s victory, and over the three days, many of these events were in themselves instrumental to the Union’s ultimate victory.  One of the most heroic and amazing acts of courage, grit, determination, and tenacity, embraced by a culture of trust, respect, and brotherhood was what Alonzo Cushing and his A Battery of Union Soldiers did on that fateful day that earned him the medal of honor.

Lee’s guidance to his main effort General George Pickett was to mass his Division and attack the Union forces at the “crop of trees”, sitting on Cemetery Hill, which was also known as “the Angle”, where a stone wall had made a sharp 90 degree turn.  Sitting on that decisive point was 1LT Alonzo Cushing, commander of A Battery, 4th US Artillery in General Hancock’s Second Corps.  It was here that LT Cushing fought to his death, ensuring that the Union line would not falter or fail. 

During Lee’s preparatory artillery fires, Cushing’s Battery suffered extensive damage.  One of the guns took a direct hit and collapsed and the men started running to the rear.  Cushing ran up to the gun, pulled his pistol ordering his men to move back to the gun, threatening them with death if they ran again, and ordered them to replace the wheel with a spare one, and to get the gun back into the fight, which they did.

But it was during these Confederate preparatory fires, that LT Cushing suffered his first wound when a piece of Confederate shrapnel ripped open his stomach.  Because of his injuries, his men tried to get him to evacuate to the rear.  Holding his innards in with his arm and hand, he refused to be evacuated.  As the fires increased, other artillery units were withdrawing from the Ridge, but Cushing refused to withdraw his Battery.  Instead, he ordered his guns to move forward, direct to the wall, where he would fire9 canister rounds directly at the attacking Confederate infantry. 

As Cushing’s guns were firing repeatedly again and again, they would have to be swabbed and while being swabbed, one of the gunners would have to put his thumb over the vent tube in order to prevent any oxygen back into the tube.  Because of the flames that would shoot up in the vent tube during the swabbing, the person with this duty would wear an asbestos covering on his thumb.  At Cushing’s gun, the person with the responsibility to execute this duty was no longer able to perform his duties, and Cushing stepped forward and used his own thumb without the asbestos glove protection, burning his thumb down to the bone.  Yet he repeated this over and over.

As the fight progressed, Cushing was rapidly losing his strength as a result of his earlier wombs and his First Sergeant, Sergeant Frederick Fuger, a Medal of Honor recipient himself for his gallantry during this battle, would prop Cushing up from falling over.  As his men urged him to retire from the fight, Cushing again denied their requests and said he would remain and fight it out.  And it was shortly thereafter, that he took a rebel bullet to his head, killing him instantly.  He never was able to witness the Union victory, but his presence during that fight made the difference in his Battery’s courage and success.

When I was Superintendent at West Point, we would take the cadet leadership to Gettysburg at the beginning of each semester to study leadership, and to use the trip as an opportunity to build their teams.  We would also take our sports team captains, so they could study leadership in the crucible of ground battle.  There were numerous places to visit, but none as rich and historic as the “Angle” where West Point graduate 1LT Alonzo Cushing received his medal of honor.

Alonzo Cushing graduated from West Point in 1861, and two years after his graduation, he found himself at the most decisive point on the battlefield, at the most decisive battle in the American Civil War, at a battle who’s outcome reversed for the first time the Confederate string of victories ultimately leading to the Union victory 2 years later that preserved our Republic as we know it today.  How would Alonzo Cushing know that 2 years after he graduated, that he would find himself at such a decisive point at such a decisive battle, and that he would have to perform his duty in this crucible to a point that he would give his life for his nation. 

We would ask the cadets to reflect on Alonzo Cushing circumstances, and to imagine that 2 years after they graduated that they would find themselves at some forsaken place someplace in the world leading a platoon of America’s sons and daughters, how they would perform their duty under similar circumstances as Alonzo Cushing had.  We would then ask them to walk on Gettysburg’s “Angle” sacred ground that ultimately preserved our nation as we know it today, and reflect on what actually occurred there, and picture themselves 2 years after they graduated in similar circumstances. 

On November 6th, 2014, Alonzo Cushing was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama.  Receiving the award in his honor was his cousin, ten generations removed, Helen Ensign.  As the West Point Superintendent, I had the honor to be present at the ceremony along with Cadet Matthew Cushing, another multiple generations-removed cousin of LT Alonzo Cushing.  

Alonzo Cushing was highly respected and admired by his troops.  And the inspiration he was to his men 155 years ago remains an inspiration to our cadets today.  He is an example of selfless duty, courage and bravery, and a leader who leads from the front and shares the exact hardships his own men experienced.  As a result he inspired them to levels that made a difference in battle, and his leadership and example remain an inspiration to today and tomorrow’s next generation of military leaders. 

[1] Alonzo Cushing’s Gettysburg story is also written in my book, “The Character Edge; Leading and Winning with Integrity”, St. Martins Press, 2020.