Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Stand and the Medal of Honor

May 02 , 2026

Alonzo Cushing's Gettysburg Stand and the Medal of Honor

Smoke choked the dawn sky.

Cannons thundered, smoke blurring reality with hell. Amid the carnage, one young officer refused to quit. Alonzo Cushing, barely 22, stood his ground through the deafening chaos of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Wounded six times, blood pouring down, he refused to let the guns fall silent.

Raised in Duty, Fueled by Faith

Alonzo Cushing grew up steeped in reverence and resolve. Born in Wisconsin, son of a West Point graduate, honor was a family creed. The weight of legacy pressed on him, but faith steadied his soul.

“I believe God directed my steps,” Cushing’s letters reveal, showing a young man who saw his service as more than duty—it was divine calling.

His Christian conviction was not a hollow shield but a fire that forged courage under impossible odds. As the Bible affirms,

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

To Cushing, this was not abstract comfort but a battle cry.

The Battle That Defined Him

July 3, 1863. The second day of Gettysburg had been won but the bloody climax waited. Pickett’s Charge tore through the Union lines like a red tide, hurling thousands onto Cemetery Ridge.

As commander of Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Cushing’s guns anchored the center. When the Confederate assault slammed into his position, he ordered the enemy to be cut down.

Shot in the leg, groin, and chest—six wounds in total—his body failed but his will did not. Cushing lay behind his guns, his hands stained crimson, refusing to relinquish his post.

His artillery men watched in awe as their officer bled openly but kept firing. “Keep going,” he insisted. Cannon barrels roared defiance while soldiers fell around him.

Minutes later, grievously wounded, Cushing died on the field. His final act was holding the line when all else fell back. His sacrifice echoed louder than the guns he commanded.

Medal of Honor, Years Too Late

Remarkably, Cushing’s heroism went unrecognized with the Medal of Honor for over a century. It wasn’t until 2014 that the nation fully acknowledged his valor.

Union General Winfield Scott Hancock, eyewitness to the stand, said,

“The brave young artillery officer who kept his guns firing until the enemy was upon him, though himself mortally wounded, deserves the highest honor.”

On December 10, 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Alonzo Cushing the Medal of Honor—151 years after his sacrifice. The citation hailed his “extraordinary heroism and unwavering devotion in the face of certain death.”

The Enduring Legacy of Alonzo Cushing

His story is not just about bloodshed but about steadfastness under fire, faith in chaos, and the cost of holding the line for others’ survival.

Cushing’s final stand serves as a grim reminder: valor is seldom neat or celebrated immediately. It festers in mud, whispered in history’s margins until truth demands reckoning.

His scars—both seen and unseen—speak across generations. Those wounds turned a 22-year-old into a symbol of sacrifice, a beacon for veterans who know the cost of loyalty.

We remember not because he was flawless but because he chose to bleed for a cause larger than himself.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

To every soldier who has faced hell and borne its scars—Alonzo Cushing reminds us: victory is not only in the end, but in the fight unfinished, the line held against overwhelming odds, the faith that binds us to one another beyond death.

His guns fell silent, but his legacy continues to roar.

Sources

1. United States Army Center of Military History, “Medal of Honor Recipients: Civil War (A–F)” 2. National Park Service, “Battle of Gettysburg Unit Histories and Orders of Battle” 3. President Barack Obama, Medal of Honor Ceremony Remarks, December 10, 2014 4. John S. D. Eisenhower, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (1999) 5. Alonzo H. Cushing Letters and Official Reports, The Library of Congress Archives