Alonzo Cushing at Gettysburg and His Last Stand on Cemetery Ridge

Oct 05 , 2025

Alonzo Cushing at Gettysburg and His Last Stand on Cemetery Ridge

Blood and powder filled the air. Alonzo Cushing lay pinned beside his gun battery on Cemetery Ridge, the roar of cannon and musket deafening. Wounded through the chest, nearly broken, but still firing. No orders, only grit. His artillery pieces kept cracking out death among the Confederate waves. He was the eye of the storm. His blood soaked the powder-stained ground, but his gun never ceased. This was a man refusing to yield—refusing to die without dragging the enemy down with him.

Roots of Steel and Spirit

Born in Delafield, Wisconsin, 1841, Alonzo was raised with an unshakable sense of duty. West Point drilled him in discipline, but it was a personal code—faith, honor, sacrifice—that drove his soul. The son of a military family, with brothers also officers, Alonzo understood the cost of service from the start.

His faith was quiet but profound, a steadying flame amid chaos. The scriptures shaped his view of suffering and courage. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1) was no mere verse but a battlefield creed.

His resolve came from more than training; it was forged in belief. When the nation fractured, Alonzo did not hesitate. Duty called, and he answered.

The Battle That Defined Him

July 3, 1863. The third day of Gettysburg. The Confederate assault—Pickett’s Charge—rushed toward Cemetery Ridge, a desperate gamble to break Union lines. Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, positioned on that embattled ridge.

The artillery crew fought through thick smoke. Cushing took six wounds over the assault’s duration—face, chest, arm. His left arm shattered, yet he “urged his men to continue firing,” a witness reported[1]. Blood pooled beneath him, vision blurred, but his voice remained steady above the chaos.

He saw Confederates breach lines directly ahead. With his dying strength, Cushing personally loaded and fired his cannon. His orders cut through the confusion, holding a critical flank that might have collapsed under the charge’s weight.

Private Charles Huey recalled Cushing’s last act: “He leaped upon the parapet and fired his piece, dead before he fell.” That single battery’s resistance helped blunt Pickett’s charge, that fateful moment on which the Union’s fate turned.

Recognition Carved in Iron and Memory

Alonzo Cushing died on the field, just 22 years old, a young officer swallowed by eternity. His bravery ignited fierce respect but decades passed before Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor.

In 2014, nearly 151 years later, President Obama posthumously bestowed the Medal upon Cushing’s surviving family. The citation honored “extraordinary heroism at the Battle of Gettysburg”[2]. His relentless command, despite mortal wounds, embodied valor itself.

Brigadier General Alexander Shaler, who witnessed the fight, called Cushing’s defense “the bravest thing” he had seen[3]. His sacrifice became a standard—an example etched into the National memory.

Legacy in the Scars We Bear

Alonzo Cushing’s story is carved into the granite of Gettysburg’s hallowed ground. But his legacy runs deeper than a name on a plaque or a medal in a case. It is the story of holding the line when everything screams to fall back.

His wounds remind veterans that pain belongs to honor. His perseverance under fire teaches the world what courage truly demands—not freedom from fear but choice.

“Greater love hath no man than this...” (John 15:13). Cushing lived these words before the world had a chance to know.

In a time when heroes are too easily forgotten, when sacrifice is a word said but not lived, Cushing’s blood cries out. The battlefield is not just history—it’s the living, breathing testament of men who stood in the breach.

To the warriors still bearing scars, visible or hidden—remember Alonzo Cushing. The cost is eternal. The fight is sacred. And through such sacrifice, redemption breathes life into duty’s darkest hour.

Sources

1. U.S. War Department, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 27. 2. Library of Congress, Medal of Honor Recipients: Civil War (2014 Medal Award Announcement). 3. Shaler, Alexander, Personal Memoirs and Reports on Gettysburg, 1889.