San Diego resident Helen Loring Ensign will be on hand Thursday morning at the White House to accept the posthumous Medal of Honor for her ancestor, Civil War hero Army 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing.
Home Post will carry a live feed of the ceremony, which begins at 11:45 a.m. EST.
According to the Department of Defense, Cushing displayed "conspicuous gallantry" during the Confederacy's infamous battle assault known as Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
Cushing was just 22-years-old when he lost his life, and left behind no children. Helen Loring Ensign is Cushing's closest descendent, according to her son, Brooks Ensign:
"My mother's great-grandmother, Margaret Sprague Smith Loring, was the sister of Alonzo Cushing's mother, Mary Barker Sprague Cushing."
Ensign told Home Post in an email his family has continued the tradition of military service:
"We have many generations of military service in the family: World War II, Vietnam, Desert Storm (my service), and my two cousins, who are USMC veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. They have named one of their children after Alonzo Cushing."
Ensign says his family "intends to circulate the Congressional Medal of Honor among many interested branches of the family, communities, institutions, etc."
