pagesofhistory Gallant Soldier

A first lieutenant who served in the Union Army is honored posthumously in November 2014 for his conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War.

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hanks to a special exemption granted by Congress, 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing, a Union officer killed

in the Battle of Gettysburg, posthumously was awarded in November 2014 the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. Cushing commanded an estimated 110 men and six cannons as part of Battery A of the 4th U.S. Artillery Company. On the third day of the battle, Cushing and his men refused to yield under a blistering Confed- erate bombardment as nearly 13,000 Con- federate infantrymen prepared to advance as part of Pickett’s Charge. “As the Confederate forces advanced, [Cushing] manned the only remaining, and serviceable, field piece in his artillery,” according to a White House special an- nouncement. “During the advance, he was wounded in the abdomen as well as in the right shoulder. Refusing to evacuate to the rear despite his severe wounds, he directed the operation of his lone field piece con- tinuing to fire. With the Confederate forces within 100 yards of his position, Cushing was shot and killed during this heroic stand. His actions made it possible for the Union Army to successfully repulse the Confederate assault.” Cushing’s family had been advocating on his behalf for the Medal of Honor since the 1980s. His cousins, Frederic Stevens Sater and Frederic Cushing Stevens III, and other family members attended the ceremony. More than 1,500 soldiers from the Civil War have received the Medal of Honor.

PHOTO: U.S. ARMY

The most recent was Cpl. Andrew Jackson Smith of Clinton, Ill., who was awarded the medal by President Bill Clinton in 2001.

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Eagle Scout Captures Veterans’ Stories ax Morelli, 15, wanted to do something special for his Eagle Scout service proj-

ect, so he decided to cap- ture on video the personal stories of 10 veterans for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. The veterans he inter- viewed served from World War II to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Morelli achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in October 2014. In his Eagle applica- tion, he explained his project was inspired by his grand- father, Donald Morelli, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and an Army major general; his great-uncle, George Kane, a World War II prisoner of war; and his grandfather, Buck Good, a Navy veteran injured in a blimp crash in 1956. Good and Kane were both Eagle Scouts. Learn more about the Veterans History Project at www.loc.gov/vets. MO

— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based free- lance writer, authors this monthly column.

JANUARY 2015 MILITARY OFFICER 79

History Lesson On Jan. 21, 1954, after 18 months of construction, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine, launched from Groton, Conn.

Union officer 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing poses in this undated Civil War-era photo.