First Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing of Wisconsin will get a Medal of Honor on September 15. Various Senators from Wisconsin starting with Proxmire in the 1980s have been working for it. What did he do? Well, he was on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg on the third day of the battle, with Pickett and two other divisions marching toward him. He commanded a Union artillery battery and was shot three times during what became called Pickett’s Charge, first in the shoulder, then in the abdomen, and fatally through the mouth while leading his artillerymen against Lee’s soldiers as they marched up the slope toward the Union lines.

Personally I think if Bobby Lee had the sense given to kumquats he’d not have ordered Pickett and Pettigrew and Trimble up that hill. If you’ve ever been there (or seen the movie Gettysburg) you’d see how slim the odds of taking it were. The front was a mile wide and Lee’s men had to march 3/4 of a mile uphill to reach the Union lines, which were fortified with many artillery batteries like the one Lieutenant Cushing led. There was no cover to hide behind, either. It was Lee’s roll of the dice, and he lost.