Letters

Fellow Heroes

I read with great pleasure your piece in “The Week” (December 8) regarding the long-overdue awarding of the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing. However, I feel called upon to question one aspect of your otherwise excellent piece. Lieutenant Cushing may not actually have threatened to shoot any man who retreated from his unit’s position during the Battle of Gettysburg. In the first place, such an act would have been totally alien to Lieutenant Cushing’s gentle character, and in the second place, such a threat would not have been needed. My great-grandfather, Sergeant Frederich Füger, who took over the battery upon Cushing’s death, and who later guarded Cushing’s body until Cushing’s brother Milton arrived to deliver it to West Point, described his commander as follows: “He was a most able soldier, a man of excellent judgment, and great decision of character; he was most faithful in the discharge of every duty, possessed of mental and physical vigor, joined to the kindest of hearts; he commanded the love and respect of all who knew him.”