Alonzo Cushing was born on January 19, 1841, in Delafield, Wisconsin. After his father died, he moved at age 6 to Fredonia with his mother and four siblings to be closer to his father's family. He attended Fredonia Academy while growing up there under the watchful eye of his uncle Dr. Squire White. In the summer of 1857, at age 16, he won a placement at the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduated in June 1861, and immediately entered active duty as a 2nd Lieutenant of Artillery. Known to friends as "Lon," he served with distinction through the first two years of the Civil War until his final battle at Gettysburg. During Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863, he was wounded three times and eventually died of his wounds while defending the Angle. For that defense at Gettysburg, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama on November 6, 2014, in a ceremony at the White House.