Apr 11 , 2026

Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Sacrifice and Medal of Honor

Alonzo Cushing gripped his cannon’s wheel through blood and mud, the deafening roar of Gettysburg around him. His hands trembling, torn by shrapnel and bullet wounds, he wouldn’t let go. “Hold the line!” The orders echoed in his fading mind. His gun crews fell, one by one, but the guns never stopped firing. Until the end. Until the mortal blow silenced him.

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The Battle That Defined Him

July 3, 1863. The third day at Gettysburg.

Lieutenant Colonel Alonzo Cushing, barely 24, stood at the apex of Cemetery Ridge, commanding Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery. The Confederate onslaught crashed like waves, led by Pickett’s charge, aimed squarely at his battered, outnumbered force.

Canisters screamed through the air. Men died beside him. But Cushing’s artillery never faltered. Faced with relentless musket and artillery fire, he refused to yield—knowing the fate of the Union army depended on this ground.

A cannonball shattered his right arm above the elbow. He stuffed a handkerchief into the stump and gritted his teeth. Another blast took a thigh. Blood poured unchecked—yet he shifted to directing with his good hand, shouting commands over the chaos.

“Give ’em hell!” he barked.

Amid smoke and screams, Cushing’s guns pummeled Confederate lines, buying crucial minutes that helped repel the assault. Finally, a bullet to the head felled him. He died clutching the artillery’s wheel, steadfast to the last breath.

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Forged by Faith and Duty

Born in Wisconsin in 1841, Alonzo was raised in a family that prized honor and service. Graduating the U.S. Military Academy in 1861, he entered the war with a solemn resolve to defend the Union.

Faith carried him through the carnage. Letters home referenced Scripture—rooted in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” His belief was not naïve but battle-tested; sacrifice held a sacred purpose beyond the blood.

His character echoed the warrior-priest—unyielding in duty, humbled by the cost. Fellow soldiers remembered a quiet courage, a man who bore scars but never complaints—a hero shaped by both discipline and faith.

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The Cost and the Honor

Cushing’s posthumous Medal of Honor wasn’t awarded until over 150 years later, in 2014—recognition long overdue. The citation states:

“For extraordinary heroism in action on 3 July 1863... With complete disregard of personal danger, though twice severely wounded, he remained at his post valiantly directing his battery until he fell dead at his gun.” [1]

His superiors and comrades left detailed reports praising his defiance under fire. Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres noted Cushing’s “gallantry and endurance beyond all praise.” Captain Charles E. Hazlett, himself mortally wounded, described Cushing’s spirit as that which “inspired the whole line."

His stand became a symbol of steadfast resistance—when giving ground meant losing everything.

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A Legacy Written in Blood

Alonzo Cushing’s sacrifice endures not in monuments alone, but in the story of what it means to fight with purpose when all odds collapse. His story is a blood-stained testament—courage forged in fire, faith tested in storm, and a life poured out so others might live free.

The war moved on, as wars always do, but on that ridge, a young lieutenant turned his agony into an immovable wall.

“Greater love hath no man than this,” John 15:13 demands reflection on his sacrifice.

Veterans who walk through life bearing scars—visible or hidden—know Cushing’s truth: courage isn’t absence of pain. It’s standing through it. Continuing to fight when mercy invites surrender.

We remember Alonzo not just for the medal or the history books. We remember so that his blood does not cry in vain. That relentless spirit is the fire that lights freedom’s path, today and always.

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Sources

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, "Medal of Honor Recipients – Civil War (A–L)" 2. Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) 3. Official Report of Brig. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 27, Part 1 4. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Citation Archive

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