Civil War Hero Receives Medal of Honor
After 151 years, Union artillery Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing has been recognized for his heroism above and beyond the call of duty at the 1863 Civil War Battle of Gettysburg. President Barack Obama presented Cushing’s posthumous Medal of Honor on November 6, 2014, during a White House ceremony.
“Sometimes,” Obama explained, “even the most extraordinary stories can get lost in the passage of time. No matter how long it takes, it is never too late to do the right thing. This medal is about more than just one soldier. It reflects our obligations as a country to the men and women in our armed services; obligations that continue long after they return home, after they remove their uniforms, and even – perhaps especially – after they’ve laid down their lives.”
On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, the third and decisive day of the Battle of Gettysburg, 22-year-old Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, positioned at a key location on Cemetery Ridge. This section of the Union line became the focus of a massive attack by 10,000 Confederate infantrymen, an action famously known as “Pickett’s Charge.” However, by the time the infantry assault was mounted, a heavy pre-attack artillery bombardment had already destroyed four of the battery’s six 3-inch ordnance rifle cannon and severely wounded Cushing in the shoulder, abdomen and groin.
Despite suffering grievous wounds, Cushing stayed with his guns and continued firing deadly canister rounds into the advancing Confederate infantrymen until he was killed by a rifle shot to the head. Shortly before his heroic death, Cushing had steadfastly refused to be taken to safety in the rear, telling his battery first sergeant that he would rather “fight it out, or die in the attempt.”
Thanks to the heroism of Cushing and other Union artillerymen and infantrymen who, in President Abraham Lincoln’s words, gave their “last full measure of devotion,” Pickett’s Charge was defeated and General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac won the Civil War’s greatest battle.
“Cushing’s story,” President Obama said, “is part of our larger American story – one that continues today. The spirit, the courage, the determination that he demonstrated lives on in our brave men and women in uniform who this very day are serving and making sure that they are defending the freedoms that Alonzo helped to preserve. And it’s incumbent on all of us as Americans to uphold the values that they fight for, and to continue to honor their service long after they leave the battlefield – for decades, even centuries to come.”
– Some information for this item was taken from an article by David Vergun, Army News Service.
For more about Cushing and Pickett’s Charge, see “Leader” in the July 2013 issue of “ACG.”
Sailor Corpsman Receives Navy Cross
On November 25, 2014, at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Justin A. Wilson was awarded the Navy Cross, America’s second-highest valor medal, for his heroic actions three years earlier while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
On September 28, 2011, Wilson, a special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman with 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command (MARSOC), was on a patrol with Marine Special Operations Team 8113. He volunteered to go with Staff Sergeant Nicholas Sprovtsoff (an explosive ordnance disposal technician) and Staff Sergeant Christopher Diaz (a handler for military dogs trained to find explosives) to clear an improvised explosive device near an Afghan local police checkpoint in Helmand province.
As Sprovtsoff began inspecting the device, it detonated in a sizable explosion. Wilson’s award citation states: “Despite being disoriented by the dust and over pressure from the blast, and knowing the enemy’s tactic of emplacing multiple IEDs in proximity, Petty Officer Wilson immediately left the safety of his position and searched the checkpoint until he located the severely wounded EOD tech.”
Diaz and another unidentified team member ran to render aid and help remove Sprovtsoff from the kill zone, but a second explosive device soon detonated. Wilson, disregarding his serious wounds from this blast, moved Sprovtsoff and administered lifesaving procedures, but the EOD tech ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
Still uncertain of the condition of Diaz and the other team member, or if any other IEDs remained, Wilson returned to the checkpoint to search for the men. Once he reached his fallen comrades, he realized there was nothing more he could do to save their lives. Only then did he allow for the treatment of his own injuries.
At the ceremony, Wilson said, “I knew what lay ahead,” referring to his anticipation that multiple IEDs were in the area. “I think [Diaz and Sprovtsoff] knew what lay ahead, and I think everybody knew what was going to happen that day.”
Major General Joseph L. Osterman, MARSOC commander, praised Wilson, saying, “This is a man who literally ran through multiple IEDs with complete disregard for his own safety. He didn’t hesitate for one second to run to the sound of the guns.”
Wilson was the first MARSOC sailor to be awarded the Navy Cross; he joined six MARSOC Marines who had previously received the medal. During the same ceremony, Diaz and Sprovtsoff were posthumously awarded the Bronze Star medal with combat distinguishing “V” device.
– From an article by Lance Corporal Steven Fox, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.
Vietnam War Letters Donated to Norwich University Archives
Norwich University, the United States’ oldest private military college and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), has announced additions to the university’s archives of two collections of letters written by members of the Norwich class of 1966 while they were serving combat tours in the Vietnam War.
The family of the late Lieutenant Colonel Howard C. Lewis donated two sets of letters that he, as a young captain, wrote home from in-country in 1969. The collection, which includes letters Lewis penned to his twin brother, Harold (who also attended Norwich), and to his parents, Daniel and Dorothy Lewis, became the first of its kind at Norwich. It also contains several photographs of Howard and the Lewis family (1964-1966) and a file of information pertaining to the 1988 dedication of the Lieutenant Colonel Howard C. Lewis Memorial Chapel at the Camp Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vermont.
During the time Lewis served in Vietnam, he was cited seven times for bravery and was awarded the Soldier’s Medal, five Bronze Star medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, two Army Commendation Medals and, later, the Vermont Medal of Merit. Following his return from Vietnam, Lewis joined the Vermont National Guard, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He passed away in 1987.
Shortly after the university received the Lewis donation, William F. Bonk, another member of the class of 1966, donated his collection of letters that he wrote to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bonk of Connecticut, during his service as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam (February-October 1968). The collection also includes color slides documenting Bonk’s time in-country.
These generous gifts constitute the first two substantial manuscript collections from the Vietnam War era to be available in the Norwich University archives. They are valuable primary resources and will serve as the foundation for helping students, faculty, staff, alumni and researchers better understand the Vietnam War experience.
– From a press release by Norwich University. For more information, visit norwich.edu.
Dressed to Kill: Civil War Zouave Uniform
Among the many historical artifacts preserved at the U.S. Army’s Muse um Support Center at -Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is the distinctive Civil War uniform of Corporal Matthew Bradley. Born in Yorkshire,England, Bradley immigrated to the United States as a boy, and his family ultimately settled in Philadelphia. In August 1862,at the age of 25, he enlisted in Company F, 114th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment,known as “Collis’ Zouaves.”
Modeled after the era’s famed French colonial light infantry of North Africa, the distinctive uniform of the Zouavesset them apart on the battlefield. Private Bradley’s uniform included a red fez with a yellow tassel, a short collarless jacket,ballooning red trousers and white canvas leggings. His jacket is especially well made, neatly hand sewn from dark blue wool cloth with sky blue cuffs.
Inside the sleeve of Bradley’s jacket are two large painted dots, the uniform sizing symbols used by Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Arsenal. During the Civil War, this 12-acre facility was one of the U.S. Army’s important centers of manufacture for a wide range of uniforms and footwear. Thousands of women, many the wives of absent soldiers, worked from their homes to sew uniforms that they brought to Schuylkill Arsenal for inspection and payment.
Private Bradley’s regiment proudly wore the Zouave uniform throughout the Civil War. During the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July2, 1863, 114th Pennsylvania advanced across Emmitsburg Road near the Sherfy farmhouse, just north of the peach orchard, where the men encountered stiff resistance as the Confederates advanced. Sergeant Alexander W. Given, also of Company F, recalled, “Then began a desperate conflict, men of both armies clubbing each other with their muskets.” Given remembered Bradley being “in the thick of the fight.”
As the Confederates moved up an artillery battery and fired canister rounds into the 114th Pennsylvania’s ranks, the Zouaves’ defensive line was finally forced back. The regiment suffered heavy casualties in the fighting, with 95 men killed or wounded and 60 reported missing. According to a family descendant, Bradley later joked that he survived because of his small stature, the bullets just passing harmlessly over his head.
Private Bradley served with Company F for the remainder of the war, and his unit saw additional fighting in Grant’s Overland Campaign – the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. A month after the war ended, Bradley was promoted to corporal and proudly sewed on the red stripes that today are still visible on his jacket. Four weeks later, on May 29, 1865, he was mustered out of service.
Bradley resumed a normal life. He married, raised a family, and worked as a plumber and pipe fitter in Philadelphia. In 1886, the 49-year-old veteran returned to Gettysburg with some of his old comrades to dedicate a monument to their beloved regiment, marking the fateful spot near the Sherfy farmhouse where they had once stood. That monument can be seen today, topped with a large bronze statue of a Zouave reloading his musket, wearing the elaborate and colorful uniform that made the Zouaves such a distinctive element of the U.S. Army.
– Submitted by Ephriam D. Dickson III, U.S. Army Center of Military History.
For information about the National Museum of the U.S. Army, slated to open in 2019, visit armyhistory.org.
WORTHY CAUSES
Operation Supply Drop is a 501(c)(3) public charity organization founded in 2010 by former Army Airborne Ranger Captain Stephen “Shanghai Six” Machuga. Its mission is to send video game-themed care packages to U.S. military personnel deployed to combat zones or recovering in military hospitals. For more information, operationsupplydrop.org.
The Iwo Jima Association of America is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the history of the Battle of Iwo Jima in particular and World War II in general for future generations. The IJAA sponsors educational and historical symposiums, which include an annual Reunion of Honor memorial service on including how to donate money or games/consoles in working condition, visit Iwo Jima conducted jointly with the Iwo Jima Association of Japan that honors those who fought on both sides of the battle. For more information, visit iwojimaassociation.org.
Teaching Civil War Leadership
A chance to visit the great battlefields of America’s Civil War is always special. Here, a group of students taking a course in Civil War Leadership stops for a photo at a Confederate artillery position atop Oak Knoll at Gettysburg. The course is offered by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
The two-day Gettysburg field trip provided the students with an opportunity to consider the great questions surrounding combat leadership.Accompanied by several faculty members from the Jepson School, the group was guided by a member of the Jepson adjunct faculty, Brigadier General (Ret.) Jack Mountcastle (kneeling at right), who serves on the ACG advisory board.After walking the ground at most of the critical scenes of combat, the students concluded their visit at the national cemetery, where they considered not just the marvelous words butal so the lasting impact of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
While traveling back to Richmond,the group avoided the heavy traffic around Washington, D.C., and traveled through the portion of Northern Virginia referred to as“Mosby’s Confederacy,” an area named for the daring exploits of the partisan ranger John Singleton Mosby,known as the “Gray Ghost.” In the rolling fields and forests ablaze with autumn colors, one could almost see the fleeting forms of gray horsemen in the afternoon shadows. It was a wonderful trip!
– Submitted by Brigadier General (Ret.) John W. Mountcastle, PhD.
For more about John S. Mosby, see “Battlefield Leader” in the March 2015 issue of “ACG.”
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
2 015 is the 150th anniversary year of the end of the American Civil War, and thus it is a fitting opportunity to visit Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, located in south-central Virginia. The more than1,300-acre park includes the Old Appomattox Court House as well as the McLean House where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the Civil War.
In one of the strangest coincidences of the war, on July21, 1861, Wilmer McLean was living on a farm near Manassas,Virginia, when the war’s initial major clash, the First Battle of Bull Run, began on his property. In 1863, he moved his family to what became known as the“Surrender House” at Appomattox. McLean is alleged to have quipped that the Civil War“started in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”
Sesquicentennial activities at the park are scheduled for April 8-12, 2015, and will be centered around real-time commemorative events organized by the Appomattox 1865 Foundation. For directions, hours of operation and a calendar of events, visit nps.gov/apco.
Originally published in the May 2015 issue of Armchair General.
