More than 151 years after he died while leading his artillery unit as it helped repulse Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, Army 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing will receive the Medal of Honor. President Obama will present the nation’s highest award for military valor to two direct descendants during a Nov. 6 White House ceremony. According to the official account of the battle, Cushing was in command of Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, which was positioned on Cemetery Ridge when the Confederates attacked on July 3, 1863. He was 22 years old at the time, a recent graduate of West Point who had seen combat in numerous Civil War campaigns before the landmark battle. The attackers knocked out two of his three six-inch ordnance rifles. Though he was so severely wounded he had to issue orders through his second in command, Sgt. Frederick Fuger, Cushing nonetheless had his men move the artillery piece to the ridge’s stone wall. At his order, they fired double-shotted canister at the attacking Confederates as they came within 100 feet of his position. At that point, he died when he was struck in the mouth by an enemy minie ball, which went completely through his skull. He was buried at West Point with full military honors.