Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Stand and Medal of Honor

Sep 18 , 2026

Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Stand and Medal of Honor

Alonzo Cushing stood ankle-deep in the mud, smoke choking the sky, cannon fire shattering the July silence. His hand was shattered, blood pouring down his uniform. Still, he refused to quit. The guns had to keep firing. The line must hold. Death was closing in from every side, but Cushing’s will was ironclad—unyielding.

A Son of Duty and Faith

Born in 1841 to an educated Wisconsin family, Alonzo Cushing carried the weight of expectation and honor from his earliest days. West Point polished his edge—class of 1861—and put him on a path to command artillery with ruthless precision.

Yet, beneath the soldier’s discipline beat a heart anchored deep in faith. Raised Presbyterian, Cushing found strength in scripture and prayer, embracing a fierce sense of divine duty.

His letters reveal a man wrestling with mortality and purpose, clinging to Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" That belief carved a code that would not break when the cannons roared toughest.

The Battle That Defined Him

Gettysburg, July 3, 1863: The war's crucible.

Lieutenant Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, entrenched near Cemetery Ridge. As Robert E. Lee launched Pickett's Charge, Cushing's guns hammered waves of Confederate infantry.

Orders whispered retreat. But Cushing, bleeding and broken, refused. The Confederate surge bore down. Cushing’s face was splattered with grit and blood. The cannon’s recoil reminded him he was alive—barely.

Comrades later said he stood “like a captain of the doomed,” his left arm shattered by rifle fire, yet he kept issuing commands, refusing to abandon the guns.

Witness Sergeant James L. Carey wrote, “Lieutenant Cushing was the very man we needed in that moment, holding the battery and boosting the men with his fiery will.”[1]

He died on the battlefield, a mortal wound silencing his firing orders, but not the legacy written in the dust and gunpowder.

Recognition Forged in Fire

For 151 years, recognition eluded Cushing’s sacrifice. His Medal of Honor nomination stalled, buried in paperwork and politics.

Finally, in 2014, the Medal of Honor was bestowed posthumously—buried courage unearthed. The citation praised him for “extraordinary heroism on 3 July 1863… knowingly exposing himself to heavy enemy fire to direct his battery.”[2]

President Barack Obama said at the ceremony, “Lieutenant Cushing... held his ground, fought through terrible wounds, and refused to abandon his post.” The award elevated a long-forgotten warrior back into the light where valor belongs.[3]

Legacy Written in Blood and Purpose

Cushing’s story is not just about guns and wounds. It's the testimony of unbending resolve—a soul forged in fire, refusing retreat when all is lost.

In the debris-strewn trenches of Gettysburg, his sacrifice was a desperate act of faith. A promise kept to comrades, country, and God.

His courage reminds us that heroism is not the absence of fear—but the mastery of it. That the cost of freedom is measured in the blood of those who never waver.

The battlefield scars are not just on skin but on spirit, echoing through generations.

His final stand whispers an eternal truth:

“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9

Alonzo Cushing’s name echoes in the roar of every cannon and in the silent prayers of those who stand watch. He is the face of sacrifice, of faith unshaken under fire.

For us who inherit peace, his story calls to courage. Calls to remember that some battles demand everything—even life itself.

And with that costly inheritance comes a charge: to live with honor, purpose, and fierce, unrelenting commitment.

Not for glory.

Not for medals.

But because the fallen made a covenant that we finish the fight.

Sources

1. National Park Service, Battle of Gettysburg: Alonzo H. Cushing, Medal of Honor Recipient 2. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: Civil War (A-L) 3. The White House, Remarks by the President at Medal of Honor Ceremony, November 2014