WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Nov. 7, 2014) -- First Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing remained at his post, wounded but fighting valiantly until he was shot dead.
Beside his cannon he fell, "blackened by powder and soaked red by blood," said Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh. Cushing "epitomized the faithfulness" of the Union and Confederate armies, July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, McHugh said.
McHugh and others spoke at a ceremony Nov. 7, inducting Cushing into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes. The previous day, President Obama awarded Cushing the Medal of Honor.
Cushing, an 1861 United States Military Academy graduate, lies in the West Point Cemetery. At the behest of his mother, his headstone reads "Faithful Unto Death," the secretary noted.
"It is faithfulness which permeates the Cushing legacy," McHugh said. "Faithfulness of a young but incredibly dedicated Soldier to do his duty. The faithfulness of fellow Soldiers like 1st Sgt. Frederick Fuger, also a Medal of Honor recipient, who fought alongside his lieutenant to the very end.
"And, the faithfulness of citizens like Margaret Zerwekh, to never forgot a Soldier's selfless sacrifice, to champion his noble cause," he continued.
Zerwekh, 94, a historian, attended both the Nov. 6 White House ceremony, and the Hall of Heroes ceremony. She conducted research on Cushing's service in the Civil War. Certain that his valorous actions merited the Medal of Honor, she lobbied her congressmen for decades to make it happen.
The faithfulness of the nation to honor and never forget its patriotic servants is also heartening, McHugh said, defining faithfulness as "unfailingly remaining loyal to someone or something and putting that loyalty into consistent practice, regardless of extenuating circumstances."
Leading up to that fateful day, the 22-year-old lieutenant fought bravely at the battles of Manassas, Fredericksburg, Antietam and Chancellorsville.
By all accounts, he was a skilled artillery officer and was well loved and respected by his subordinates and superiors alike, McHugh said.
Generals described him as "brave, cool and competent." One of his men described him as "a most able Soldier, a man of excellent judgment and character," he said.
All noted "his poise under fire, radiant grin, and infectious smile that gave a soothing effect during the chaos of battle," McHugh said.
All of those qualities and more were present on July 3, 1863, at about 2:30 p.m., during the height of Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he said.
As commander of Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Army of the Potomac, observers described Cushing as "boldly standing tall atop Cemetery Ridge," McHugh remarked. At the start of the battle, he commanded 126 men and six cannons.
The Confederate artillery took its toll on them, however, he noted. All of his officers were killed and only two of his guns remained. Cushing was wounded in the abdomen and right shoulder, and his life was ebbing fast. Despite appeals from his men, he refused to leave the battlefield as Confederate forces closed in on him and shot him dead.
The Soldiers that day didn't fight for empire, domination or personal gain, the secretary said. They fought for value, for a cause and for one another. They fought for things they found worthy of their last full measure of devotion.
"At Gettysburg, the fate of our very nation hung in the balance," he said. Thanks to Soldiers like Cushing and the faithful who followed him, the nation was preserved.
Cushing and fellow Soldiers did not die in vain, McHugh said. "They died for a cause, they died for a country. And when you think about it, they died for each and every one of us. But those men are us, and we are there, Americans all. And we must remain ever faithful to their cause and their noble ideas. And let us also be ever faithful to their memory."
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel B. Allyn also spoke.
The courage and valor of Cushing's actions that day at Gettysburg "truly helped save the Union," Allyn said, pointing out that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee brought the war to the North, as the fate of the nation hung in the balance during that critical moment in time.
Had Confederate forces breached Cushing's critical position atop Cemetery Ridge, it would have split the Army of the Potomac in half, possibly causing panic in its ranks, and the Union forces could have collapsed, possibly altering the outcome of the battle, Allyn said.
The horror of the battle is difficult to describe, he continued. The Confederate force's main target was destroying the Union artillery on Cemetery Ridge. A Soldier on the ridge described it like this: "The roar of guns was deafening. The air was soon clouded with smoke and the shriek and startling crack of exploding shells above, around and in our midst, the driving through the air of fence rails, posts and limbs of trees; the groans of dying men, the neighing of frantic and wounded horses, created a scene of absolute horror."
And, while other artillery units withdrew from the ridge, Cushing ordered his two surviving artillery pieces directly at the wall of the approaching Rebel forces, he said.
"Every round of Cushing's guns counted," Allyn said. "Equally important was his leadership, his refusal to quit, rallying the troops around him."
A Union Soldier, a prisoner of war from behind Confederate lines witnessed the event. He described just how close Pickett's Charge came to success, he said. "The Confederates broke over the low, irregular stone wall with a chorus of yells. And our men appeared to be giving way, before the onset of the second line. The cheers of the Confederates made the hills echo. In that awful moment, I feared our line was hopelessly broken."
After Cushing was killed and the Confederates breached the Union line, his men "fought like a team possessed, hand-to-hand, bayonets, rifle butts, stones and fists, to hold their ground," Allyn said.
When the battle was over, he said, the survivors of Cushing's battery counted 600 dead Confederate soldiers in front of his two cannon. The Rebels breached the line, but didn't have enough men to hold their stolen ground and exploit their success. Every round counted.
Cushing's "valor and the unvanquishable fervor it inspired in his Soldiers, truly saved the Union," Allyn concluded.
(For more ARNEWS stories, visit www.army.mil/ARNEWS, or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService, or Twitter @ArmyNewsService)
Related Links:
Union Soldier to receive Medal of Honor
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Obama: Medal of Honor recipient Cushing's courage lives on in Soldiers today
SLIDESHOW: Unforgotten Grit -- A Civil War hero remembered
Medal of Honor - 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing
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