Original pair of muster rolls from 1863, documenting the pay of the Union company just before their fateful role in turning back Pickett's Charge, "the high-water mark of the Confederacy," with incomplete payments offering poignant evidence of their losses during the battle.
Very good.
Price: $7,500.00
"Cushing ran down the last of his guns to the battle-line. / The rest had been smashed to scrap by Lee's artillery fire. / He held his guts in his hand as the charge came up to the wall, / And his gun spoke out for him once before he fell to the ground." – JOHN BROWN'S BODY, Stephen Vincent Benet
At Gettysburg, Battery A was "in the apex of Pickett's Charge" on July 3rd, and suffered greatly for it. First Sergeant Frederick Fuger described "desperate hand-to-hand fighting around the guns," and recalled that "the battery sustained sixty percent casualties" (McConnell and Person). Fuger served under 22-year-old First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, whose valiant actions secured the outfit's position in the face of the charge. Wounded by shrapnel to the point of disembowelment, Cushing maintained command while Fuger held him aloft, until Cushing was killed by gunfire. Cushing's second-in-command briefly took over the battery, until he was also killed, leaving Fuger to complete the engagement.
Fuger was awarded a Medal of Honor — then still a fairly new award, only established in 1862 — for his role in commanding the company after the death of the officers. Cushing was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2014.
Though these two rolls were for the period May-June 1863, the men were not paid until August 4, as indicated by notes to the front of both rolls. The logistical effects of the tragic events of the company's stand on July 3rd are on full display here: the signatures of Cushing and his second-in-commend are noticeably absent from the "payment received" column, as are the signatures of a number of enlisted men. A remarkable testament to the human cost of war.
Read more: Donald McConnell and Gustav Person, ""I will give them one more shot!" Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery," National Museum of the US Army.
Outside Uniontown, MD: n.p, 1863. 21'' x 31''. Two large folded printed form sheets filled in by hand in ink. Various signatures, including that of Frederick Fuger. Sheets with some cracking to crosses of folds, one long closed tear along fold; mild toning. Overall intact.
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