Descendants of Civil War veteran Lt. Alonzo Cushing want to use the Medal of Honor recently awarded to Cushing to bring the Fredonia native’s bravery to life.

“We feel this is very much a medal for the country and the nation,” Helen Bird Loring Ensign, 85, of Palm Desert, Calif., Cushing’s first cousin twice removed, said in December. “We believe it should not sit on somebody’s mantelpiece and just stay there; it needs to be shown so that people today can understand the price of making our country free and the sacrifice it takes. We want to bring Alonzo to life in what he did for the nation.”

On July 3, 1863, Cushing, a 22-year-old Fredonia native, was commanding Battery A of the Fourth U.S. Artillery in the Battle of Gettysburg. Standing in the face of Pickett’s Charge on Cemetery Ridge, a shell fragment went straight through Cushing’s shoulder. A second shell fragment hit Cushing in the abdomen and groin – but Cushing stood his ground, directing his troops. A high-ranking official told Cushing to go to the rear, but Cushing still didn’t leave his men. Instead, Cushing continued directing operation of his lone field piece, firing in the face of Pickett’s Charge before he was killed.

Cushing’s Medal of Honor makes its way to Chautauqua County this week. A public event will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Moore Park as part of the annual Ninth NY Cavalry Civil War re-enactment. The commemoration will feature descendants of the Cushing family, comments from several local dignitaries and the arrival of the Medal of Honor – which will be on public display at the Chautauqua County Historical Society’s McClurg Museum through Sept. 8.

Bringing Cushing to life locally is a duty placed in the capable hands of the Chautauqua County Historical Society and the McClurg Museum in Westfield. County residents should be sure to take the time to not only see a piece of local history, but to be inspired by it as well.