CDV of Heroic Lieutenant William B. Cushing, Destroyer

CDV of Lieutenant William B. Cushing, pencil identified on verso. E. & H.T. Anthony, after Brady: New York, n.d.

Born in Wisconsin, William Barker Cushing (1842-1874) moved with his family to Chicago, then Gallipolis, OH. Upon the death of his father in 1847, Cushing's mother moved the family to Fredonia, New York, supporting her family by running a school. Young William secured a position as a page in the House in Washington in 1856, and the following year was accepted to the Naval Academy as an acting midshipman (9/25/57). He was not the student his mother surely hoped, and lack of study and aversion to discipline (a harbinger of things to come) resulted in his dismissal from the Academy and resignation from the Navy on March 23, 1861. With war underway Cushing was reinstated as Acting Master's Mate later in 1861. By the following July, serving in the North Atlantic Squadron, Cushing was promoted lieutenant (7/16/62).

Throughout the war, Cushing engaged in daring and dangerous actions characterized by stealthy attacks on Rebel installations with a handful of "volunteers," often under heavy fire. Miraculously he came out of these scuffles as the only one not killed, wounded, or captured. The destruction of the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle was a typical Cushing operation. On October 27, 1864 Cushing crept up the Roanoke River at night with 21 "volunteers" in a cutter and small steam launch rigged with a spar torpedo and a boat howitzer. He found the Albermarle protected by a log boom connected by chains meant to prevent approach by fire ships and thwart small boats with boarders. Cushing eluded lookouts most of the way upriver, but one alert sentinel on Albermarle spotted the raiders in the dark and sounded the alarm. Coming under a barrage of small arms fire, Cushing managed to ram the Albermarle at full steam, carrying the launch over the slippery logs, pulling the lanyard and exploding the spar torpedo under the Rebel vessel. At the same moment, Cushing and his men were thrown into the water by the concussion, struggling survivors now separated from the group. Cushing swam downstream, attempting unsuccessfully to save one of his crew who was in mid-river, eventually climbing ashore on the other side some distance downstream. He then trudged through swamps until he came upon a Confederate shore post, and, seizing the first opportunity, commandeered their skiff, rowing to the safety of the Federal picket vessel, Valley City. For this daring deed he was immediately promoted to lieutenant commander to date from October 27, 1864.

Suffering the ill effects of worsening health, Cushing remained in Navy after the war and advanced to commander (at that time the youngest officer to hold the rank) on January 31, 1872. Another incident occurred just before the end of his life that demonstrated another aspect of Cushing's modus operandi. In 1873, upon learning that the Anglo-American crew of the Virginius, a ship hired by Cuban insurrectionists to land contraband munitions, were being summarily executed at Santiago de Cuba, Commander Cushing took the USS Wyoming, of which he was commander, and without orders steamed for Santiago. He then informed the Spanish governor that if he intended to execute any more of the crew (53 had already been shot), he had better remove all women and children from Santiago first. The executions stopped but not before England and the United States were nearly drawn into a war with Spain. During the summer of 1874 Cushing was sidelined from sea duty and took up the post of executive officer at the Washington Navy Yard, a job that did not mesh with the daring officer's idiom. Meantime, his health deteriorated at a rapid pace and doctors were unable to diagnose the cause of the severe pain in his hip. By Thanksgiving he had become bed ridden and was given doses of morphine to ease the "constant and terrible" pain. On December 8, 1874 he was removed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital and died comatose on December 17 in the presence of his wife and mother. His brilliant career cut short with accolades yet to be realized, William B. Cushing was buried on January 8, 1875 in Bluff Point, the Naval Academy Cemetery at Annapolis.

The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection

Lots 37, 69-98, 295

Cowan's enthusiastically presents the second installment of collector Richard B. Cohen's matchless archive of Civil War Brown Water Navy photography. Richard was known to many in the field - indeed some of these images may resonate from a bygone transaction or "show and tell' - but to those who knew him best he'll be remembered as a "disciplined collector who maintained a relatively narrow focus having built an important, perhaps unsurpassed collection in his area of specialization." This catalogued portion of the core collection is a seamless continuation of high quality photography highlighted by an array of Brown Water Navy warships in desirable carte-de-visite format. We counted no fewer than 22 different Mississippi River vessels, some battle-weary and familiar, others obscure, but all identified with many named in period ink. Research confirmed that several of these CDVs were signed by an officer who had served aboard the ship conveying the historic connection and spirit of "wooden ships and iron men." The last of the larger format albumen warships are also included - the USS Blackhawk, Eastport, and Louisville. A fine quartet of lots feature sought-after enlisted sailors. We proceed with eight additional lots of multiple identified officer cartes, the myriad of navy rank insignia during the Civil War both complex and instructive. We think it opportune to quote a comment from a previous buyer who emailed that, "...I draw inspiration from their BWN service when known, and when not offering (him) the opportunity to reconstruct an aspect of overlooked Civil War naval history." Now comes the time to further disperse Richard B. Cohen's collection and recycle the photography to the care of the next generation, and in so doing we salute a lifelong endeavor unlikely ever to be duplicated.

Provenence: The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection
Condition Report: Pencil identification on verso. Some light scattered surface spotting. Clipped corners.