“It can never forget what they did here.”

Tuesday morning I hopped on the trolley to the Visitor’s Center to see the love of my life.

In case you haven’t gathered that I really love Alonzo Cushing.

The Gettysburg Visitor’s Center has a little exhibit on Medal of Honor Recipients in the battle of Gettysburg. Which includes (you guessed it)

Alonzo.(Lon actually, he hated being called Alonzo)

The exhibit featured Lon’s Medal of Honor, his belt worn by him on July 3, 1863, two letters: one from Lon to his aunt and another to Lon from a friend, Confederate currency sent by Lon to his aunt as a souvenir, and a photograph of Alonzo from Fredericksburg.

I also saw the cyclorama and noticed this little gem that hurt my heart. But while at the cyclorama, I realized why I’m here, why I’m doing my project, why I went up north.

This is sacred ground. “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

The world may have forgotten or never even heard of names like Alonzo Cushing, George Woodruff, or Julius Adams, but they served, they fought, they died so that this nation could have a future. I am doing this so that people will know of their sacrifice, of their names, of what they did. For as long as there is a breath left in my body, these cadets will never be forgotten.

-Julia