My Genealogy Hound

COMMANDER WILLIAM BARKER CUSHING, U.S.N. The three supremely great names in the naval history of the American Republic, are those of John Paul Jones, Oliver Hazard Perry and William Barker Cushing. Cushing is as completely the representative of the highest naval strategy and the type of the greatest individual daring of the Great Rebellion as was Perry of the second war of Independence and Jones of the Revolutionary struggle.

William Barker Cushing was born in Wisconsin, November 24, 1842, and was the youngest son of Milton B. and Mary (Smith) Cushing. He was descended from an old Puritan family of New England and his paternal grandfather, Judge Zattu Cushing, who was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, became a pioneer settler of Chautauqua county and over its courts of justice presided from their organization in 1811 until 1824; he was a Baptist, served in the war of 1812, and it is said of him, “That in those qualities which fit a man for his duties, social, civil and religious, he was not excelled by any of his fellow-citizens.” His son, Milton B. Cushing, the father of William B. Cushing, married Mary Smith, a near relative of Rear-Admiral Smith, and removed to Wisconsin where he died and left four sons in their childhood. Mrs. Cushing returned to Fredonia so that her children might enjoy good educational advantages and after the late civil war went back to the west where she died on March 26, 1981.

William Barker Cushing received his early education at Fredonia and in 1857 was appointed to the U. S. Naval academy, at Annapolis, Maryland, but resigned on March 23, 1861. In May of the same year he volunteered and was appointed master’s-mate on the U. S. ship Minnesota, and on the day of her arrival at Hampton Roads captured the Delaware Farmer, a tobacco schooner, the first prize of the war. He was attached to the North Atlantic blockading squadron, during the war, served part of the time on the South Atlantic coast and repeatedly distinguished himself by acts of bravery.

He was commissioned lieutenant July 16, 1862, and in November of the same year he was ordered to capture Jacksonville, Florida, intercept an important mail and destroy the New Juliet salt works. He captured the mail, took prizes and shelled a Confederate camp, but was unable to cross the bar to Jacksonville. He then served on the Blackwater and in the sounds of North Carolina where he distinguished himself upon several occasions. During 1863, he added to his reputation for daring bravery and good judgment by an expedition up the Cape Fear and Little rivers and his operations on the Nansemond.

It is impossible to give in detail in this sketch all of his brilliant exploits, distinguished services and hair-breadth escapes. His most brilliant exploit and which made world-wide his then, already, national reputation, was the destruction of the Confederate iron-clad ram “Albemarle” on the night of October 27, 1864. This vessel had successfully encountered a strong fleet of Union gun-boats and fought for several hours without sustaining material damage. There was nothing able to cope with her in the sounds and grave apprehensions were entertained of the Union iron-clads being able to prevent her from sweeping everything before and shelling the principal northern sea-port cities. Cushing volunteered to destroy her and banish the nightmare of terror which her presence cast upon the Union fleets. With a steam launch and a volunteer crew who fully realized the importance and danger of the mission upon which they were going, he ascended the Roanoke river, towing an armed cutter. The river was lined with Confederate pickets to guard against just such an attack as this; but Cushing’s phenomenal good luck did not desert him, and he was within a few yards of the “Albemarle” before he was discovered. Casting off the boat which he had in tow with orders to attack a picket post near by, he drove the launch straight at the huge bulk of the iron-clad, whose crew rushed to quarters and at once opened a heavy fire on their advancing foe. The launch replied and effectively with her howitzer for a few moments until Cushing reached a raft of heavy logs which had been built around the ram. Over this the launch was driven, and by the time she received her death wound from the “Albemarle’s” guns, Cushing had cooly swung the torpedo boom under the great ship’s overhang and exploded the charge. A large hole was blown in the iron-clad’s side; she sank at her moorings and was never raised. Directing his companions to seek their safety, Cushing left his sinking raft and swam down stream one-half mile where he reached the river bank thoroughly exhausted; when he recovered strength he plunged into a dense swamp and after hours of tedious wading, came out on the shore of a creek where he found a Union picket boat. He and only one other of his companions escaped. For the sinking of the “Albemarle” he received the thanks of Congress and was shortly afterwards elevated to the rank of lieutenant-commander, his commission being dated October 27, 1864. At Fort Fisher he buoyed out the channel in a small skiff and completed his work in six hours. In the final assault on its frowning walls he led a force of sailors and marines from the Monticello in an attack on the sea front of the fort and amid an unceasing fire at short range which cut down his men in windrows he crossed one hundred rods of sand, rallied his men and gave such efficient support to the land forces that before midnight the fort was surrendered.

During the war he received five commendatory letters from the Secretary of the Navy and at the close of the struggle was appointed to the command of the Lancaster in the Pacific squadron. In 1868 he was placed in command of the Maumee, and for four years was attached to the Atlantic squadron. On the return of the Maumee to the United States, Lieutenant-Commander Cushing was advanced to the rank of commander to date from January 1, 1872, and he was the youngest officer of that rank in the navy. He was allowed leave of absence but his health which had been impaired by over-exertion failed completely and he died of brain fever in Washington City, on December 17, 1874.

On February 22, 1870, he united in marriage with Catherine Louise Forbes, daughter of Colonel D. S. Forbes, of Fredonia. To their union were born two children: Mary Louise and Catherine A. Mrs. Cushing is an intellectual woman of taste and refinement, residing now at her pleasant home in Fredonia.

The memory of William B. Cushing has been honored by the various Grand Army Posts in Wisconsin and other states of the Union named after him; while on the water the sea-going torpedo boat Cushing suggests by its character the daring of him for whom it was named. A thousand pens have written of him and his deeds, and among the just and deserved tributes recorded in honor of his achievements we select these two:

“A country and the navy may well be proud of this most adventurous of their heroes,” and, “Cushing by repeated daring and successful achievements, has rivaled the fame of Paul Jones and Perry, and associated his name with theirs in immortality.”

That intense earnestness of purpose, that wonderful spirit of daring and that supreme contempt of death which characterized the heroes of the Great Rebellion as well as the cool and deliberate calculations of its great leaders and master-spirits, were qualities possessed by Cushing in the highest degree; while in addition to all this he was gifted with a military ability, a fertility of invention and all powerful-will, which places him among the greatest naval heroes of all time.

No Cleopatra of ease ever lured Cushing from any Actium of life, and no thought of death ever cast a shadow of fear upon any enterprise however dangerous which he had conceived. He was always in the battle where the iron hail fell the thickest and his place in the picture was where the blaze of the cannon was the brightest.