Alonzo Cushing at Gettysburg

U.S. Army

In the pre-dawn hours of July 2, 1863, six 3-inch Ordnance Rifles of Battery A, 4th United States Artillery, went into battery in a small, weed choked pasture on Cemetery Ridge. Partially enclosed by a stone wall that turned sharply west and then southward, later to be known as "The Angle", the position was right in the center of the US Second Corps line on Cemetery Ridge. Dawn revealed a broad plain of farm fields subdivided by rows of wooden fencing. The Emmitsburg Road, from Emmitsburg, Maryland to Gettysburg, was a few hundred feet in front and almost parallel to the ridge. For the men of the battery, it was a perfect field for artillery to defend. With little activity occurring at that early hour, the artillerymen lounged by the guns.

1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, 22 years-old and an experienced veteran of numerous battles, commanded Battery A. Born in Wisconsin in 1841, Cushing's family had moved to New York while he was an adolescent. Cushing received an appointment to West Point and found that he loved the discipline of military life. He was especially enamored with artillery. After graduating in the class of 1861, he served in staff positions to various officers until assigned to command a battery in the spring of 1863. The men who knew him described Cushing as a skilled artillerist devoted to duty. Some of the soldiers in Cushing's battery had served in the army prior to the war and others transferred in from infantry regiments. Cushing had thoroughly drilled his battery, preparing them for battle with strict discipline and his personal knowledge of the chaos a battle presented. Though experienced, no one in the battery could have predicted what lay ahead for them at Gettysburg.

Later on July 2, the battery was first engaged in a brief artillery duel with Confederate cannon positioned on Seminary Ridge nearly a mile distant. The battery was then engaged in the repulse of the Confederate attack against the Federal left that swept right up to the stone wall in front of Cushing's guns. There was some sporadic firing the following morning but then the field went silent. Cushing's artillerymen found shade by their guns or under the limber chests. The horse teams lazily hitched to their harnesses while the drivers brought buckets of water from the nearest wells. Around 1 pm, the firing of two Confederate cannon alerted the men. Almost immediately, the ground shook with the roar of over 140 cannon and the air came alive in a storm of exploding shells. It was the cannonade meant to destroy the Federal guns and positions that would be charged by two and one-half divisions of Confederate infantry, including the command of General George E. Pickett. The shock of this barrage startled the battery's men, some scrambling for cover while the horses pulled and strained against their harnesses. Through the dust and smoke raced the young lieutenant, barking orders to his gunners to get to their posts. Within minutes, Cushing's battery was in action.

Artist Edwin Forbes illustrated the carnage wrought on the Federal artillery during Pickett's Charge.

Library of Congress

Battery A appeared to be the focus of the Confederate cannonade and was nearly destroyed by the furious bombardment. Artillerymen and horses fell dead at their posts. A limber chest exploded with a roar, killing and maiming the crew in charge of adding fuses to the shells. Guns were dismounted, carriages and limbers shattered. At one point, a wheel of one cannon carriage collapsed and the crew abandoned the piece. Furious, Cushing raced into the middle of the fleeing soldiers, drew his pistol, and ordered the men back to their gun, threatening them with death if they ran again. The spare wheel was rolled up to the gun carriage, the piece lifted and set, and within minutes the cannon was back in action.

The cannonade left Cushing's battery in shambles. Only a handful of artillerymen remained, not enough to man the two remaining cannon that could still be used. Though painfully wounded by shell fragments, the young lieutenant refused to leave the field or retire his shattered command. Receiving permission from General Alexander Webb, commander of the Federal brigade stationed around the battery, to move his two guns down to the wall in the Angle, Cushing and his survivors rolled a gun forward adjacent to the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry where he ordered extra canister rounds be piled by the piece. Canister, a tin can filled with iron balls, turned the cannon into a giant shotgun and was specifically designed to use against infantry.

Soon the Confederate infantry of George Pickett's Division crossed the Emmitsburg Road and surged toward Cemetery Ridge. Federal infantry opened fire as cannon along the entire front sent hissing shells into the Confederate columns. Round after round tore into the Confederate ranks but they pressed on, steadily closing on the Angle, Webb's men, and Cushing's gun. Determined to fight to the last, Cushing personally directed every shot as his crew struggled to load and prepare the cannon for the next round. Switching to double charges of canister, Cushing could now see the Confederates were barely 100 yards away and would be up to the muzzle of his gun within seconds. Grasping the lanyard that fired the gun, he shouted above the din to Sergeant Frederick Fuger standing nearby, "I will give them one more shot!" Seconds later a Confederate bullet struck Cushing through the mouth. The shot killed him instantly.

The young lieutenant was later buried with full military honors at his alma mater, West Point. Original cannon on cast-iron carriages and a narrative tablet mark the position of Battery A, 4th United States Artillery in the famous Angle at Gettysburg. Between the guns is a simple stone marker dedicated to Lt. Cushing, placed there by his family, former officers and friends from the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry, in 1887. The United States Congress approved a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2010 for Cushing. On November 6, 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Cushing the medal in a special ceremony at the White House. Lieutenant Cushing's is the last Medal of Honor to be awarded to a soldier in the American Civil War.