Saturday, March 31, 2012

William Barker Cushing, USN

From the January 29, 2011, African-American Soldiers and Sailors Blog.

From November 23-25, 1862, he steered the USS Ellis up New River to Jacksonville, North Carolina where he and the crew captured the Wilmington-bound mail, raised the U.S. flag over the courthouse, confiscated the local postmaster's shoes, seized two schooners and a number of stands of arms.

On his way back, Cushing came under fire of Confederate batteries and later grounded the Ellis on a sand bar and had to fight off Confederates for two days before finally being forced to scuttle his ship to avoid its capture.

He escaped in one of the two captured schooners.

He was best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle and also commanded a unit in the Navy-Marine attack on Fort Fisher.

Lincoln's Commando. --Old B-Runner

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