Category:William Barker Cushing
United States Navy officer (1842-1874)  | |||||
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| Date of birth | 4 November 1842 Delafield | ||||
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| Date of death | 17 December 1874 Washington, D.C. | ||||
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William Barker Cushing graduated from the USNA in 1861. There is sometimes a question as to whether he is a bona fide graduate. Asked to resign in 1861 after failing Spanish and having a bad disciplinary record due to his chicanery and feuding over personal honor, especially with the faculty, he complied, temporarily taking an enlistment in the Navy. Asked to resign from that, he complied for purposes of fighting a duel with a superior officer. The outbreak of war changed everything. After a personal meeting with Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, in which he was supported by his former enemies of honor, Cushing was reinstated as a Naval Academy graduate and Ensign. Having led a number of daring raids he is best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle during a nighttime raid on October 27, 1864. He was the only raider to survive, hiding out for days in the swamps. For his exploits on these raids he is sometimes called the first Navy SEAL (the naval commandos). He was promoted to the Navy's youngest commander. Shortly after he was invalided with severe back injuries acquired during his service, injuries only remediable, if at all, by modern medecine, to which the only partial relief was morphine. He died at 32, looking, as his wife said, as though he were 60. Since Welles had the authority of the President and of Congress, Cushing must be defined as a Naval Academy graduate.
Media in category "William Barker Cushing"
The following 12 files are in this category, out of 12 total.
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19 N 13098 (17132765765).jpg 5,557 × 4,199; 2.28 MB
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Appletons' Cushing William Barker signature.jpg 431 × 127; 22 KB
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Appletons' Cushing William Barker.jpg 521 × 595; 78 KB
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Commodore William B. Cushing - NARA - 528771.jpg 2,440 × 3,000; 1.33 MB
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Cushing's launch and torpedo.jpg 1,513 × 804; 278 KB
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KN 10890 (color) (17106759676).jpg 4,340 × 5,659; 5.68 MB
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LC-DIG-CWPB-03898 (16702381363).jpg 6,902 × 5,620; 4.04 MB
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Naval battles, ancient and modern (1883) (14578563567).jpg 2,576 × 1,852; 1.26 MB
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Our navy in time of war (1861-1898) (1899) (14780697344).jpg 1,696 × 2,308; 889 KB
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Wbcad.jpg 399 × 286; 34 KB
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WilliamBCushing.jpg 589 × 733; 123 KB
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- Cushing (surname)
- William (given name)
- 1842 births
- 1874 deaths
- People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
- Union Navy officers
- Naval officers of the United States
- United States Naval Academy graduates
- Burials at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery
- Deaths in Washington, D.C.
- People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War