Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Alonzo H. Cushing - MOH

"Cushing graduated from the United States Military Academy in the class of June 1861, and received commissions as second and first lieutenant on the same day. He was brevetted major following the Battle of Chancellorsville.^[5] Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery at Gettysburg, and was hailed by contemporaries as heroic in his actions on the third day of the battle. He was wounded three times. First, a shell fragment went straight through his shoulder. He was then grievously wounded by a shell fragment which tore into his abdomen and groin. This wound exposed Cushing's intestines, which he held in place with his hand as he continued to command his battery. After these injuries a higher-ranking officer said, "Cushing, go to the rear." Cushing, due to the limited number of men left, refused to fall back. The severity of his wounds left him unable to yell his orders above the sounds of battle. Thus, he was held aloft by his 1st Sergeant Frederick Füger, who faithfully passed on Cushing's commands. Cushing was killed when a bullet entered his mouth and exited through the back of his skull. He died on the field at the height of the assault."  Wiki

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 "Cushing stood with his guts in his hands as the charge came up to the wall."

From "John Brown's Body"

If ever anyone deserved the Medal of Honor it was this man.

Henry Burgwyn was the colonel of the 26th North Carolina Infantry.  He and Cushing fell thirty yards from each other.  They were about the same age.

 

Brigadier General Lewis Armistead commanded a brigade in Pickett's Division.  He fell with his left hand on the muzzle of one of Cushing's 12 pounders.  He and Cushing lay on the bloody grass so close to each other, so close.  A French Army friend visiting Gettysburg with us told his wife "le general de brigade Armistead etait blesse ici avec sa main sur la bouche d'un canon, mon dieu, mon dieu..."  Somehow it sounds better in French.  I went to school with one of Armistead's descendants.

 "Lest we forget"  pl 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Cushing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_K._Burgwyn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Armistead

******************

"The line started uphill.  They were taking fire from infantry farther south along the stone wall.  Union regiments had crossed the barrier to turn and fire into their right flank.

Something hit him hard in the muscle of the left arm.  

Some of the men around him were strangers.  Things were getting mixed up.  To his left, Thacker saw the Confederate assault roll up the slope.  He reached the wall..

They all reached it.

The blue enemy started to draw back with the two flags in their midst.

One of Thacker's men lunged across the stony barrier to grasp the staff of the national color.

The red and white striped cloth writhed in the smoke and turmoil.  A dark featured Yankee with the chevrons of a first- sergeant cried, "No, you don't, damn you!" and clubbed the Southerner in the face with his musket butt.

A soldier at Thacker's side bayoneted the sergeant.

The Rebel line of battle now stood behind the downhill side of the stone wall.  Their riflemen loaded and fired with the skill and practice of long habit.

 The Union infantry at the crest seemed shaken by the sight of so many of their enemy so close.  The blue troops began to look over their shoulders toward the valley behind them.

Thacker thought he had fifteen men left.

Enemy soldiers began to appear on the hilltop in apparent flight from something happening to the left.

He looked in that direction.  Blue and red flags surged across the wall in the area beyond the trees.

The battery firing steadily into the ground to Thacker's left was guarded by the remnants of the infantry pushed back from the wall.  Small arms fire cut down gunners and infantrymen alike in the space around the guns. 

Where's the goddam' artillery? Thacker wondered, looking behind him.

There was no one at all behind the Rebel infantry at the wall.

A blonde young major from another regiment appeared at Thacker's side.  He pointed at the battery.

Thacker suddenly saw the truth of it.  The battery to their front was the linchpin of the Union line.  If it went, the whole center might fall apart.

The battery commander saw the major pointing at him.  The man stood hatless in the sun, just behind his cannons.  Blood ran down one hanging, useless arm.  "1st Section!  Action left!  Double Canister!" he shouted.  In response to his command, two of the guns began to spin on their wheels, manhandled around by brute force.

The blonde major hurdled the wall, sword in hand. "Take the guns!  Take the guns!" he screamed at the men behind him.

Thacker stepped back far enough to get a start, and followed him over. 

What was left of the company went with him. 

The two guns spun.

The day stood still as Thacker ran up the slope behind the blonde young man.  The smoke seemed less dense.  He watched the gun captain of the right-hand piece raise his arm as the men finished loading.  Behind him, on the crest of the ridge, the Union infantry brought their weapons up in unison.  Thacker's searching eyes found a little group of men in civilian dress.  One of them leaned on crutches.

"Fire!"  

Claude Devereux felt his heart stop.  Through the smoke he saw the butcher's ground in front of the two Napoleons.  The blonde officer's corpse lay broken on the grass.  One of his hands very nearly touched an ironshod wheel.  Behind him, the others were scattered, all the way down to the wall.

Farther up the ridge, beyond the trees, the Rebel attack surged almost to the crest.  Human beings stood in ranks and fired at each other at ranges that did not exceed thirty yards.  Men howled and rifle bullets whirred across the ground.  It was clear that the moment of opportunity for Confederate success had nearly passed."

From "The Butcher's Cleaver" by W. Patrick Lang

(This particular New York battery was just to the south of the copse of trees.  Cushing's battery was just north of the trees.)

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

During the US Civil War, were there any instances of officers and men changing sides - singly or en mass?

[turcopolier]

Babak

At the very beginning before fighting started a good many US regular officers resigned their commissions and when these resignations were accepted by the Secretary of War they mostly took service with their native states. I don't know of any instance of a commissioned officer changing side during the war itself. A good many enlisted soldiers on both sides who had been captured changed sides if they were not going to be exchanged. There was a Black regiment raised for the Confederates in Louisiana that became a Union regiment after the North occupied southern Louisiana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Louisiana_Native_Guard_(CSA) pl

[Fred]

Col.,

A Black Confederate regiment in Louisiana? I imagine they will be some howls of protest over that history.

[BabelFish]

I have a great deal of admiration for Lo Armistead and have always thought that Richard Jordan did a superb job of playing him in the Turner movie Gettysburg, that translated Sharra's 'The Killer Angels'. Jordan was ill at the time, fatally as it turned out. You can see that in the film, once you've understood that fact. I've read that folks thought that helped him communicate the pain Armistead would have felt on having to go up against Hancock on that fateful day.

[William R. Cumming]

The funeral oration of Pericles would seem appropo IMO!

[Matthew]

Fred: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Louisiana_Native_Guard_(CSA)

[scott s.]

Fred,

It's well known, though perhaps better referred to as "Creole" rather than "Black" in consideration of the culture of Louisiana. A bigger issue was the insistence by the theater commander Banks that White officers were assigned after they were reformed as USCT.

[turcopolier]

Babelfish

"When you get back to your home, I want you to tell them what you saw here..." Richard Jordan as Armistead in "Gettysburg" speaking to Lt Col Fremantle just before the attack on the 3rd day. pl

[oofda]

I remember reading the story of Cushing as a kid- always wondered why he had not been given the MOH until now. BTW, Sergeat Füger was awarded the MOH.

[BabelFish]

Pat, that would have been a mighty task for Freemantle. Sharra comments that, even after the battle, he was still convinced that the Confederacy would outright win the war.

I still chuckle at remembering Longstreet's comment, in The Killer Angels, when he sees Freemantle waving at him from afar and says "He's not very bright, is he."

[turcopolier]

Babelfish

Shaara's view of Fremantle is not supported by the facts of his life or the evidence of his excellent little book concerning his 90 days in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fremantle

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/fremantle/menu.html/

BTW I do not think Confederate independence was unachievable after Gettysburg. The Rebels wanted to leave the US permanently. To have that what they needed was a decision in the North to discontinue efforts to conquer them. IMO both Lee's campaigns in the North were mistakes. As one Confederate officer said after Gettysburg "what we might have gained there was far outweighed by what we left there." The same is true of the Sharpsburg Campaign in which Lee took risks with his precious army that no sane man should have taken. For example, he decided to decisively engage McClellan at Sharpsburg when he had only 25,000 troops in hand and there was no bridge across the Potomac to his rear. It was win or die. Stupidly belligerent. No, IMO the right path would have been to wage a Fabian war in both the east and west with the aim of killing and wounding so many Yankees or pseudo-Yankees that the public would have demanded an end. Specifically, in the Overland Campaign of 1864 Lee almost achieved sufficient wreckage of the Army of the Potomac to have forced Grant to retire. That might have ruined Lincoln's chance of re-election. pl

[William R. Cumming]

P.L. and ALL! What was the highest honor bestowed by the Confederate government on its heroes and are the names of the awardees available?

[BabelFish]

Pat, I will yield on Freemantle and will read his book. I wonder if Sharra was just extending Old Pete's frustration with the invasion or if Longstreet specifically thought Freemantle was, in fact, not terrible smart.

IMO the smartest thing that Lincoln did was the blockade. Of course, that's reflecting an old sailor's viewpoint. Would you agree that the Overland campaign was intended to be a war of attrition? As Chamberlain comments in his memoirs, along with others, if Baldy Smith had only walked into Petersburg and cut the rail lines, the war would have been shortened by a year. Chamberlain does talk about the Union losses being horrific.

[turcopolier]

WRC

The "Southern Cross of Honor." Someone other than I would have to provide a list of recipients. I have never seen a photo of anyone wearing one during the war. pl

[Eliot]

Col. Lang,

It was never produced during the war, was it? There was the official roll of honor but no medal to accompany it.

- Eliot

[Tidewater]

Tidewater to Turcopolier,

Sir,

I know you know this but someone needs to point out that Alonzo was one of four brothers who served with the United States Navy during the War. I think two died. It was Alonzo's brother William who accomplished the amazing feat of sinking the CSS Albemarle. The attack has the cheery element of The African Queen about it. Though Cushing actually got caught in the muzzle blast of one of the Albemarle's guns, was thrown through the air into the juniper water, somehow surviving being pickled. As is possible from the physical damage from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) it seems to have done for him a few years down the line. They called it "sciatica" then? (Didn't Daniel Morgan have sciatica? He said when it hit it was like being shot.) Cushing did something remarkable at Fort Fisher as well, it seems.

The ram Albemarle is a great southern story. The Confederates built her in a corn field up river, probably arguing a lot, certainly improvising, as they went along. Absolute beginners, as the British say. When she was going down the river and into battle, they were still hammering away on her. When hit by a cannon shot the bolts inside had a disconcerting way of popping off and bouncing around inside.

I once read a little book about her. The North Carolinian who wrote it grew up on those sounds behind the Outer Banks, so he spelled the ram's name the way they had always correctly mispronounced it: "Abermarle." The printer had to attach a neatly printed note in the binding against the frontispiece that was the first thing you saw when you opened it, acknowledging the mistake. The word "Abermarle" must have appeared a thousand times. The writer's cringing little hell!

[Eliot]

One of my mother's ancestors was a recipient and so I looked into the issue, albeit briefly. Michael Neff (Näf) enlisted in the 63rd Virginia at the start of the war and was cited for valor at Chickamauga. As to why, I wish I knew.

- Eliot

[Tidewater]

Tidewater, somewhat crestfallen, to Turcopolier,

I just went back and checked. Talk about writers' mistakes! I know that the history I just provided is not quite right. Cushing may or may not have been injured in the explosion of the torpedo. But he actually swam out of there the next day. The Ram Albemarle never fired a shot. Physically, something did happen to Cushing.

I think my bit about the Confederates having serious problems getting the ram built and working on her going down the river is correct.

CSS Albemarle was involved in some of the most inelegant naval fighting of the whole war. They rammed at every chance when it was counterproductive, must have been pumping like crazy in every engagement; fired heavy cannon like Brooke rifles point blank; the crews were surely deafened, knocked off their feet again and again, startled to be lurched and rolled into and out of their ships' lumbering death grips where they knew they were surely all going down together; they had rifle and pistol duels out of the embrasures fighting off boarding parties. You know, these tactful, gentlemanly naval officers seem to turn into something else altogether when they fight their ships. Is this not so?

And another of Cushing's brothers is immortalized in On The Border With Crook!

[Tidewater]

Tidewater to Turcopolier,

Sir,

I need to get it right. There were four Cushing brothers. Two served in the United States Navy. William was the one who sank the CSS Albemarle.

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks P.L.

[Eliot]

Col. Lang,

"BTW I do not think Confederate independence was unachievable after Gettysburg."

Professor Gallagher stresses this, pointing to Lincoln's deteriorating political support in that summer of 64. For Gallagher, it's the failures in the West and the fall of Atlanta which doomed the Confederacy. If Johnston had held Sherman off, if Hood hadn't squandered Army of Tennessee outside of Atlanta - then, then the copperheads might have won.

To Gettysburg and a Fabian strategy, would the leadership of the Confederacy accepted a defensive war? It strikes me as antithetical to their code.

- Eliot

[turcopolier]

Eliot

I don't think you can call "Little Mac" a "copperhead," but IMO he would have negotiated a way out of the war. As for "the code" Lee had a very hard time persuading his army and the government that his 1862 and 1863 campaigns were a good idea. pl