Winning a Battle to Honor a Civil War Hero

(NYTimes) Margaret Zerwekh and Alonzo Cushing were separated by more than a century, but united by a tie to the wooded land here along the Bark River, 35 miles west of Milwaukee. Drawn by that bond, Ms. Zerwekh, a 90-year-old with a barbed wit, spent 23 years fighting to get Lieutenant Cushing honored for his brave service in the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg.
She petitioned congressmen, senators and presidents.
“He wouldn’t back down,” she said of Lieutenant Cushing, 22, who was killed in a storm of gunfire after refusing to retreat, so neither would she. Continued

Photo: "Warrenton, Va. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner and staff. ... Left to right: Capt. W. G. Jones, Maj. Laurence Kip, A.D.C., Lt. Col. Joseph H. Taylor, A.A.C., Gen. Sumner, Capt. J. M. Garland, Chief of Ambulances, Capt. S. S. Sumner, A.D.C., Alonzo Herford Cushing, Lt. Col. W. W. Teall." (Library of Congress)