Gregory Korte, USA TODAY 
President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to First Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing on Thursday. This is the most long-overdue Medal of Honor in the nation's history.
WASHINGTON — President Obama awarded the most long-overdue Medal of Honor in the nation's history on Thursday, recognizing a Civil War lieutenant credited with holding back the Confederate charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The highest military honor to 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing came 151 years after his death, longer than any other medal previously awarded. It was only made possible by an act of Congress last year to waive time limits for Cushing after a 25-year lobbying campaign by amateur historians and Cushing's admirers.
"Sometimes even the most extraordinary stories can get lost in the passage of time," Obama said. "This medal is a reminder that no matter how long it takes, it's never too late to do the right thing."
Cushing, a West Point graduate born in Delafield, Wis., was 22 and had already seen action at Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg before commanding a Union artillery battery on the crucial third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
"In the chaos and smoke, 'Lon' and his men could hardly see in front of them," Obama said. On the other side was the relentless Confederate assault now known as Pickett's Charge.
"Over 10,000 Confederate infantrymen advanced, elbow to elbow, in rows over a mile wide," as Obama described it. "Peering through field glasses, Lon ordered his men to continue firing at the advancing columns. He used his own thumb to stop his gun's vent, burning his fingers to the bone."
Commanding the lone remaining artillery piece and wounded in the abdomen and shoulder, Cushing continued to fire, and used his own thumb as a stop to a gun vent, burning it off.
He was shot and killed, and the spot where Cushing died holding back that charge has come to be known has as the high-water mark of the Southern cause.
Obama said there were thousands of men just like Cushing. "I'm mindful that I might not be standing here today, as president, had it not been for the ultimate sacrifices of those courageous Americans," Obama said.
Obama acknowledged the work of Margaret Zerwekh, a 94-year-old amateur historian from Cushing's birthplace who painstakingly researched his story and lobbied Wisconsin's congressional delegation for decades. "He saved the union," Zerwekh told USA TODAY in August.
"What's more, she even managed to bring Republicans and Democrats together to make this happen," Obama said. "Margaret, we may call on you again sometime in the next several months."
The ceremony took place in the White House's Roosevelt Room with 60 spectators, including several distant Cushing cousins. Helen Loring Ensign, 85, of Palm Desert, Calif., accepted the medal for her first cousin, twice removed.
"For this American family, this story isn't some piece of obscure history – it is an integral part of who they are," Obama said. "And today, our whole nation shares their pride, and celebrates what this story says about who we are."
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