Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Courage and Posthumous Medal of Honor

Apr 14 , 2026

Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Courage and Posthumous Medal of Honor

Blood and smoke choked the thin Pennsylvania air. Amid the chaos of July 3, 1863, artillery shells screamed overhead. Amid shattered horses, deafening explosions, and a faltering Union defense stood a man drenched in blood but unyielding. Alonzo Cushing fired on. A mortal wound pinned him to the ground, yet his cannon spoke hell to the Confederate forces pressing Cemetery Ridge. This was no ordinary soldier. This was a hell-forged hero whose guts and grit shaped a turning point in American history.

The Soldier’s Creed: Born of Duty and Faith

Alonzo H. Cushing came from Milwaukee, a scion of a proud military family. West Point churned out men with calloused hands, steely eyes, and an unbreakable code. Cushing’s faith ran deep. Raised in the Episcopal Church, he embraced the conviction that honor was woven with sacrifice—a soldier was a servant first. His letters reveal a man wrestling with the gravity of command, yet embracing God’s sovereign will.

His Christian beliefs were not window dressing. They fueled his courage. In one prayerful pause, he reportedly whispered lines from Romans 8:37:

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

For Cushing, courage was rooted in something eternal—beyond the blood and bullets.

The Battle That Defined Him

Gettysburg was a crucible burning bright and brutal. On July 3, Confederate forces aimed to smash the Union center—Cemetery Ridge. Captain Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, holding a critical position on the Angle. Facing a flood of infantry and artillery, his orders were clear: hold at all costs.

Then the horror began. A Union lieutenant fell beside him, then a captain. The cannon crew crumpled one by one. Cushing took direct hits—severe wounds in his abdomen and legs. Yet, refusing to abandon his post, he climbed back up and shouted orders, directing his gunners through the deafening roar. His cannons fired round after harrowing round.

Witnesses recount that even as he fell for the final time, Cushing ordered his men’s last guns to thunder at the enemy charge. "Hold the line or die trying." That was his unspoken mantra that day.

Years later, his commanding officer Edward S. Godfrey would write,

“No braver or more devoted officer ever fell on the field.”

Recognition: Valor Etched in Bronze and Honor

Alonzo Cushing died July 3, 1863, a martyr to his cause, his youth bleeding away in the Pennsylvania dirt. His gallantry was noted by contemporaries, yet the Medal of Honor eluded him for decades—lost in bureaucratic shadow.

It took over a century, but in 2014, President Barack Obama finally awarded Cushing the Medal of Honor posthumously. His citation reads:

“For extraordinary heroism on July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Captain Cushing continued to fight his cannon despite mortal wounds.”

A long-overdue salute to a man who refused to yield—whose blood paved a pathway for Union victory and eventual peace.

Legacy of a Warrior: Sacrifice Beyond the Silence

Captain Alonzo Cushing’s story bleeds timeless lessons. Courage is not the absence of fear—it is standing against it when every bone screams otherwise. Sacrifice is not grand speeches but the quiet dying of a soldier holding ground so others might live.

Cushing’s faith shaped his battlefield resolve, reminding warriors and civilians alike that purpose anchors pain. His legacy is a call to hold fast until the last breath—knowing something greater waits beyond the rubble.

His fight reminds us: valor is forged in fire, but it lives forever in the stories we tell.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” —2 Timothy 4:7

In Alonzo Cushing’s story, the war does not end at Gettysburg. It lives in every man and woman called to face darkness without flinching. That bloodstained hill echoes still, whispering—a measure greater than death is courage, carried boldly for the sake of hope.

Sources

1. United States Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: Alonzo H. Cushing 2. Cushing, H.P. & Wheeler, J.W., The Capture of Jefferson Davis and the Death of Captain Alonzo H. Cushing (Civil War Archives, Military History Press) 3. U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Alonzo Cushing Medal of Honor Citation 4. National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park Unit Histories 5. Obama White House Press Release, Posthumous Medal of Honor Award to Captain Alonzo Cushing, 2014