Alonzo Cushing's Last Stand at Gettysburg and the Medal of Honor

Jun 07 , 2026

Alonzo Cushing's Last Stand at Gettysburg and the Medal of Honor

Alonzo Cushing lay drenched in blood, a hole torn through his abdomen, the iron scent of death thick in the air. Around him, cannon roared, Union lines faltered, Confederate soldiers pressed hard. But the guns under his command never fell silent.

He held the line. Even as darkness crept in, even as friends fell, he poured fire into that choke point—the Devil’s Den—at Gettysburg’s heart.

The Battle That Defined Him

July 3, 1863: The final day of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Captain Alonzo H. Cushing commanded Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, atop Cemetery Ridge. The Union’s artillery position was vital—its loss meant a breach, a collapse.

At 2 p.m., Confederate forces launched Pickett’s Charge. Waves of Southern troops hurled themselves against Union lines.

The cannon’s thunder was deafening.

Cushing’s guns cut into the enemy ranks, but the barrage came back harder. Musket shots tore leaves from trees, bullets chipped stone and cannon. Cushing received a leg wound but refused to yield.

Bayonets closed in. A sharpshooter’s ball shattered his shoulder. Still, he barked orders through excruciating pain, refusing to give ground.

Friends tried to pull him back; he waved them off. The fight was not over.

Finally, with a mortal wound piercing his abdomen, Capt. Cushing slumped, still grasping the wheel of his gun.

His last artillery round fired under his command silenced the enemy’s advance.

“He died at his gun,” one comrade wrote later. A soldier to the last breath.

A Soldier Raised in Faith and Duty

Born in Wisconsin, 1841, Alonzo’s family was steeped in service and faith. His father fought in the Mexican-American War, instilling a code of honor and sacrifice. West Point shaped him, but it was faith—the quiet cornerstone—that held firm beneath the storm.

His journal entries, sparse but telling, often referenced scripture. “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts” (Psalm 28:7).

He was not a man chasing glory.

He carried the burden of responsibility like armor.

Cushing’s faith did not promise exemption from pain, but it forged resilience, a reason to stand when others faltered.

Recognition Deferred by Time

Cushing died on the field, his valor preserved in letters and witness testimonies but overlooked for decades.

It took 151 years for official recognition to catch up.

In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Alonzo Cushing the Medal of Honor, almost a century and a half after Gettysburg’s firing ceased.

The citation immortalized his courage:

“For extraordinary heroism on July 3, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Virginia... Although painfully wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, Captain Cushing remained at the front to direct the fire of his battery until he was mortally wounded.”

General John Gibbon, commanding the 2nd Corps, called him:

“An officer worthy of a better fate.”

His Medal of Honor would have been awarded earlier but for lost paperwork and the chaos of Reconstruction. When it finally came, it was a salute to raw, unyielding tenacity.

The Legacy of a Warrior’s Heart

Alonzo Cushing’s story is carved into the soul of American sacrifice.

He was not the loudest hero but the steadfast one.

The man who, bleeding and broken, answered the call beyond pain.

The battlefield demands more than bravery. It demands sacrifice.

The courage to stand when the weight crushes, to run through fire knowing it will burn.

His life is a lens: how to live and die with purpose.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Cushing’s legacy holds a mirror to every combat veteran’s scars—visible and invisible.

Legacy is not medals or monuments but the lesson etched in blood and bone: Faith sustains us in hell. Duty binds us to brothers who bleed. Purpose carries us beyond loss.

The war may have ended in those fields long ago, but the echo of Alonzo Cushing’s guns still rings through the smoke.

His courage speaks in fractured whispers: Fight for what’s right. Stand when the line breaks. Give everything for the lives behind you.

That is a warrior’s honor.

Sources

1. Medal of Honor Citation, Alonzo H. Cushing — United States Army Center of Military History 2. “Cushing: The Last Hero of Gettysburg,” Richard M. McMurry (University of Kentucky Press) 3. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 27, Part 1 — Battle of Gettysburg Reports 4. National Park Service, Gettysburg Battlefield History