USA > Wisconsin > Waukesha County > The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc > Part 81
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turned and fled, a wreck, while shot after shot beat and brayed her own sides till the skies rang with the echoes, and the fate of the old navies, with their snowy billows of canvas, was settled by the victory of the little black iron turret.
"Of course the young sailor had, as time went on, the usual number of the escapades that seem to be the peculiar properties of his class, one, not the least, of which happened after the fight of Malvern Hill, when, being ashore with his admiral, and fired, by the account of his valiant brother, with the desire of sharing in an affair that might be similar to the seven days' battle, he boldly made off in search of adventure, and rode to review the army on President Lincoln's staff, finding himself under arrest on his return, though presently, with the proverbial luck of the middy, released from duress. He was destined, however, soon to leave that fortunate and irre- sponsible condition, and in July, 1862, was promoted to a lieutenancy, with intermediate grades being overlooked, and was ordered to the sounds of North Carolina ; and, having turned to account the year's stern schooling, there the career that has rendered his name remarkable really began. And it may be mentioned here that it was not only in the art of the sea-fight that he had accomplished himself, but in the more difficult art of attaching men to him in such wise that they would hazard life and fortune to follow him, a thing absolutely indispensable to his under- takings. Of this attachment of his companions and subordinates an instance may be cited to the purpose, though so trifling. This occurred once when the Lieutenant went to Washington with dispatches, and when, chancing to look over the hotel register, he found the names just above his own were those of the officers who had ventured with him on that terrible night of the affair of the Albemarle, and whom he had supposed to be gone to their long home. He had worn on the coat which he had thrown off that night upon taking to the water a ribbon with a gold chain and locket of some value ; and upon springing into the room where were the officers, in the sorry guise of their prison habiliments, after the first greetings were over he saw one take from under the collar of his blonse some of the buttons of that coat, one the locket, one the chain, and another the ribbon, the men having carried these articles, unsuspected and untouched, through all the want and privations of four months in rebel prisons.
" It having been decided, not long subsequently to Lieutenant Cushing's promotion, to make a combined movement of army and navy against the town of Franklin-afterward destroyed by the army-an agreement was entered into by the army to open the attack, and the navy to send three vessels up the Blackwater in order to intercept the retreat of the 7,000 rebels. For some reason or other, the plan was changed, but the messenger dispatched by the commanding officer with the account of the change did not reach his destination in season; and presuming that all was to be as arranged, three vessels moved up the Blackwater at the appointed hour, and were presently engaged, with a couple of hundred men and a few cannon, by all the strength of the enemy, in a stream exceedingly narrow, and so crooked that lines had constantly to be taken from the ships and wound about the trees on the shore, to obtain purchase and haul the bows round the bend. At last, on working past a sharp angle of the shore, they came upon an impas- sable barricade, an abatis formed of the great trees felled from both banks directly across the stream, at a point where the force of the angry current drifted them strongly in toward the left side ; and at the moment every object on the bank became alive, and blazed with a deadly fire, and such a yell burst forth from every quarter that it seemed to belong to the universal air. Capt. Flusser instantly ordered all hands into shelter, since it would have been the merest bravado to attempt fighting his few men on an open deck; but Lieut. Cushing, chancing to glance over the side, saw a mass of infantry rushing down under cover of this fire to board the vessel that lay in such a cruel ambuscade, and calling for volunteers, he dashed out, cast loose the howitzer, and by the aid of half a dozen men and an officer, wheeled it to the other side of the deck. Before the piece could be leveled, the seven men lay dead and dying around him, and, alone on the deck, he sent the death-dealing canister flying into the assailants with a will. It had the effect of magic, making such havoc that the enemy fled in terror-all save the leader, a man of noble appearance, who, unaware of the faltering of his troops, advanced, brandishing his sword, his long hair streaming behind him, a shining mark for death to lay low. Upon this,
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all hands were called to the scene, the guns were worked with grape and canister, and the marines, protected by the hammocks, watched the treetops for a puff of smoke, and picked off the sharpshooters, who fell every moment through the breaking branches with wild cries. After that nothing was left but retreat, and there followed half a day of furious assault and repulse, fighting for every point, in order to send the lines ashore there, and so to round the curves of the river ; of struggling on the enemy's part to keep the ships in the toils, of barricades at every bend, of rifle-pits on every bluff. Of course the ship that had been in the rear of the advance now led the retreat, and received the concealed fire of a thousand infantry at every exposed spot, while the Commodore Perry, bringing up the rear at some distance behind, was in almost every instance unexpected by the rebels, and coming on their flank, threw into them such volleys of grape and shrapnel that those on board could distinctly see the bloody havoc that they wrought. At length, completely exhausted, the three brave vessels were in open water once more, decks wet with blood and heaped with dead and wounded, and sides fairly riddled with bullets. It was probably owing to the report of this affair, in which Lieut. Cushing was highly complimented, that he was ordered to his first command, the gun-boat Ellis, a craft of a hundred tons, mounting two guns, and drawing so little water that, in Western par- lance, she could float on a heavy dew ; and in her the young officer, aged nineteen, resolved upon noble achievements.
"After capturing the town of Swansboro, taking and being obliged to burn the Ade- laide, with a cargo worth $100,000, and destroying many important salt works, Lieut. Cushing made a dash for the county seat of Onslow Court House, about twenty miles from the mouth of New River, where the wide and deep waters afforded an excellent harbor for Nassau vessels. The following is his official report of the affair, to hiis senior officer, and his demand for an investigation, which was denied him, because, as Mr. Fox said, 'We don't care for the loss of a vessel which fought so gallantly as that :'
UNITED STATES STEAMER HETZEL, November 26, 1862.
SIR : I have the honor to report that I entered New River Inlet on the 23d of this month, with the United States steamer Ellis under my command, succeeded in passing the narrow and shallow place called the Rocks, and started up the river. My object was to aweep the river, capture any vessels there, capture the town of Jacksonville, or Onslow Court House, take the Wilmington mail, and destroy any salt works I might find on the banks. I expected to aurprise the enemy in going up, and then to fight my way out. Five miles from the mouth, I came in sight of a veasel bound outward, with a load of cotton and turpentine. The enemy fired her to prevent her falling into our handa. I ran alongside, made aure that they could not extinguish the flames, and again steamed up the river. At 1 P. M., I reached the town of Jacksonville, landed, threw out my pickets, and placed guarda over the public buildinga. This place is the county seat of Onslow County, and quite an important town. It is situated on the right bank of the river going up, and is thirty-five or forty miles from the mouth. I captured twenty-five stand of public arms in the court house and post office, quite a large mail, and two schooners. I also confiscated the negroes of the Confederate Poatmaster. I forgot to mention that the town is situated upon the main turnpike road from Wilmington. Several rehel officers escaped as I neared the town, and carried the news to that city.
At 2:30 P. M., I started down the river, and at 5 P. M. came in sight of a camp on the hank, which I thoroughly shelled. At the point where the achooner captured in the morning was still burning, the enemy opened fire on the Ellis with riflea, but were soon silenced by our guns. I had two pilots on board, both of whom informed me that it would be impossible to take the ateamer from the river that night. High water and daylight were two things abao- lutely essential in order to take her out. I therefore came to anchor five miles from the outer bar, took my prizes along- side, and made every preparation to repel an attack. All night long, the signal-fires of the enemy could be seen upon the banks. At daylight I got under way, and had nearly reached the worst place in the channel, when the enemy opened on us with two pieces of artillery. I placed the veasel in position, at once hoisted the battle-flag at the fore, the crew gave it three cheera, and we went into action. In one hour, we had driven the enemy from his guns and from the bluff, and passed within a hundred yards of their position without receiving fire. Up to this time I had been in every way successful, but waa here destined to meet with an accident that changed the fortunes of the day, and resulted in the destruction of my vessel. About five hundred yards from the bluffs, the pilots, mistaking the channel, ran the Ellia hard and fast aground. All hands went to work at once to lighten her, and anchors and steam were used to get her afloat, but without auccess. The headway of the steamer had forced her over a shoal, and into a position where, as a center of a circle, we had a circumference of shoal all around. When the tide fell, I aent a party ashore to take possession of the artillery abandoned in the morning, but when they reached the field it was discovered that it had been removed while we were at work upon the vessel. If I had secured this. I proposed to construct a ahore battery to assist in the defense of my vessel by keeping the rebela from placing their battery in position. At dark I took one of my prize schooners alongside, and proceeded to take everything out of the Ellis excepting the pivot gun, some ammunition, two tona of coal, and a few small arms. Steam and anchor again failed to get my vessel afloat. I felt confident that the Confederates would come on me in overwhelming force, and it now
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became my duty to save my men. So all men were called to muster, and the crew told that they could go aboard the schooner. I called for six volunteers to remain with me on board and fight the remaining gun. Knowing that it was almost certain death,* the men came forward. and two master's mates, Valentine and Barton, were among the num- ber. These gentlemen subsequently behaved with coolness and bravery. I ordered the schooner to drop down the channel out of range from the bluffs, and there to wait for the termination of the impending engagement, and if we were destroyed to proceed to sea. Early in the morning, the enemy opened upon us from four points with heavy rifled guns (one a Whitworth). It was a cross-fire and very destructive. I replied as best I could, but in a short time the engine was disabled, and she was much cut up in every part, and the only alternatives left were surrender or a pull of one and a half miles under their fire in my small boat. The first of these was not, of course, to be thought of; the second I resolved to attempt. I fired the Ellis in five places, and having seen that the battle-flag was still flying, trained the gun upon the enemy, so that the vessel might fight herself after we had left, and started down the river, reached the schooner, and made sail for sea. It was low water on the bar, and a heavy surf was rolling in, but the wind forced us through after striking several times. We were just in time, for about six hundred yards down the beach were several companies of cavalry trying to reach the mouth of the inlet in time to cut us off. We hoisted our flag, gave three cheers, and were off. In four hours I reached Beaufort. I brought away all my men, my rifled howitzer and ammunition, the ship's stores and clothing, the men's bags and hammocks, and a portion of the small arms. I retained on board the Ellis a few muskets, pikes and pistols to repel boarders. I neglected to state that when I took possession of the enemy's ground on the 24th, a salt work was destroyed, and ten boats ren- dered useless that were to have been used for boarding.
At 9 A. M., the United States steamer Ellis was blown in pieces by the explosion of the magazine. Officers and men behaved nobly, obeying orders strictly under the most trying circumstances.
I respectfully request that a court of inquiry may be ordered to investigate the facts of the case, and to see if the honor of the flag has suffered in my hands.
" This report was indorsed in commendatory terms by the senior officer to whom it was addressed, and was further indorsed by Admiral Lee with the expression of his 'admiration for Lieut. Cushing's coolness, courage and conduct.'
"Shortly after this affair, there being need of pilots for the harbor of Wilmington, upon which place an attack was meditated, Lieut. Cushing undertook to make prisoners of some ; and in the course of his adventure, at night, a couple of miles up a narrow, shadowy stream, he was suddenly saluted by a volley of musketry. Without losing a moment, he turned his boats to shore, and crying to his men to follow him-there were but twenty in all-he had them,. yelling and shouting, up a bluff and charging an earthwork, over ditch and parapet, and, through the might of sheer boldness, driving the garrison from the fort with so firm a conviction that they were surprised by a much superior body, that arms and valuables and even supper, were left at the mercy of the conquerors, who, enjoying the supper, and possessing themselves of everything portable, soon destroyed the earthwork and returned to the little prize schooner in which they had disguised their approach, and which was already rolling in the heavy swells of an approach- ing storm. Inside of the angle made with the coast by Cape Fear and Frying-pan Shoals, which jut out into the Atlantic for some thirty miles, and where every southwest gale heaps up the sea in a fearful manner, in a vessel of forty tons, with one anchor, a few fatboms of chain, and a lee shore alive with an angry and alert enemy-this is a situation certainly not to be coveted ; and though the Hope ran under close-reefed canvas, it soon became apparent that, making as much leeway as headway, there was no possibility of her weathering the shoals at all. Meanwhile a tempest of rain abated in some degree the great height and power of the waves, but it was accompanied by a dense fog that enfolded the little schooner like a fleece, and shut her off from all the world of raging waters round them. At this juncture one of two things must at once be decided upon-either to go ashore and surrender vessel and crew as prisoners of war, or to put boldly out across the thirty miles of stormy space between the shore and the shoals, and, allowing for all the leeway made, endeavor to strike the mere vein of a channel that was known to streak them like a hair. Of course Lieut. Cushing chose the latter, although, in such a gale, he was aware that the breakers must be very high even in that narrow channel. It was, in fact, a magnificent game of chance, for should they veer to the right or the left the distance of a dozen rods, not one plank of the schooner would be left upon another. Accord- ingly he fixed his course, placed Mr. Valentine-the same master's mate who acted so gallantly at the loss of the Ellis-at the helm, and told him alone of the danger.
"' All at once,' says Lieut. Cushing, in relating the affair, ' I saw the old Quartermaster at
* The magazine, as Lieut. Cushing does not mention in bie report, being entirely exposed.
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the lead turn deathly pale as he sang out, 'Breakers ahead ! For God's sake, sir, go about !' In an instant the cry was, 'Breakers on the lee bow ! ' then, 'Breakers on the weather bow !' and we were into them. All seemed over now ; but we stood at the helm, determined to control our boat to the last. A shock-she had struck. But it was only for a second, and she still fairly flew through the great white breakers. Again and again she struck, but never hard. She had found the channel, and in twenty minutes we were safe, and scudding for Beaufort.'
" Lieut. Cushing now took command of a steamer mounting five 100-pounder smooth-bore guns, one 100-pounder Parrott rifle, and a 12-pound howitzer, with a crew of 150 men-pre- ferring this command in Hampton Roads, with a good prospect of engagement, to that of the fast blockader Violet and a prospect of many rich prizes. And fighting being what he wanted, he had, one might suppose, a plenty of it, being engaged continuously for three weeks, and never once defeated ; taking earth works and bringing off the guns ; pulling in his gig from ship to ship under the muzzles of the enemy's guns in full blast; taking, with ninety sailors and a howitzer, the town of Chuckatuck four hours after it had been occupied by Longstreet's left wing; making important reconnaissances, constantly exposed to danger-bullets grazing his skin, and one shearing a lock of hair from his head close to the crown-but never meeting with any injury. At the close of this duty he received a letter of congratulation and thanks from the Secretary of the Navy, and being ordered into dock for repairs, he was sent for by the President, who complimented him with enthusiasm in an hour's interview.
"After being put in condition again, Lieut. Cushing's ship proceeded on an expedition up the York River, in which Brig. Gen. Lee, the son, of Gen. Robert E. Lee, was made prisoner ; and before long he was ordered to the defense of the capital, which the advance of the rebels had endangered. It was while he was stationed at Washington that the battle of Gettysburg took place, where his brother fell fighting in command of a battery of the Fourth United States Artillery, and Lieut. Cushing at once proceeded to the field with the double purpose of procur- ing his brother's remains and of working his guns, if permitted to do so; but the army had already moved on, leaving its terrible debris of horses and cannon and caissons, of countless wounded men and unburied dead, beneath the burning sky. 'As I write this,' says Lieut. Cushing, some years later, 'as I write this, rocked on the long swell of the Pacific, under the warmth of the equatorial sun, my mind goes back in review of the many sad scenes in those bloody years of Rebellion, but fails to bring up any picture that is so grand, or solemn, or mournful as that great theater of death.'
"In the following August-that of 1863-the Lieutenant went on board the Shoboken, which was a ferry-boat with the hull built out, fitted for work in all manner of shallow creeks, but eminently unseaworthy. In her he destroyed the blockade-runner, Hebe, after a contest with a rebel battery ; and being refused permission to do as much for another vessel in New Topsail Inlet, soon undertook the task without permission. Anchoring the Shoboken near the land late in the afternoon, he led the enemy to suppose that an expedition in boats was intended six miles up the river to the wharf where the prize lay ; and accordingly one gun was detached from the rebel battery of six at the mouth of the inlet, carried up to the wharf, and pointed so as to command the deck of the prize, in case the remaining guns had not entirely annihilated the party attempting entrance ; and a watch having been set, things seemed as safe as strength and vigilance could make them. But the rebels had a foe to deal with of whose strategic powers they made no calculation, and it did not enter their heads to observe that the Shoboken was anchored four miles up the beach, and to draw any inference from such anchorage. So, with the night, taking ashore two boats' crews in a single boat, the Lieutenant had them shoulder the dingy and carry it across the narrow neck of land, and launch it on the other side, four miles inside the inlet, and entirely out of range of the battery at the mouth. A night surprise is apt to be a successful thing, for it has to aid it all the doubt and magnitude and awe of the night, which increases the attacking force to infinity, and bewilders the judgment of the assailed with darkness ; but even with knowledge of this the rebels might have been amazed if they had ever
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learned that they were surprised, charged, and routed in the night by six sailors, their artillery and ten prisoners captured, the vessel burned, and some valuable salt works destroyed, two sail- ors acting as pickets, two guarding the prisoners, and two, assisted by the ever-ready plantation hands, burning the vessel and buildings. Of course the ten prisoners would have been entirely too much for the six men if they had only known there were but six, but three of them being stowed in the dingy, while a great amount of ordering and answering passed between suppositi- tious boats on the stream, the remainder were directed to go some furlongs up the bank and report to an officer there, and not to go too far out unless they wished to be shot by the pickets of their captors ; and that being done, the Lieutenant and his party glided away in the darkness and regained the Shoboken in safety.
" But not to rest. It was only from one thing to another with this daring spirit. Finding the next day, on regaining the squadron, that it was engaged with a battery on the shore, he threw himself with twenty men into boats, assaulted the battery, and took two rifled guns, which he got aboard his ship; and immediately afterward, no other enemy being at hand, entered into a tussle with a northeast gale, which so nearly had the better of him that when he came in sight of the fleet again he learned that all had supposed him at the bottom of the sea ; but he had, in truth, a curious way of always coming to the surface again and of frequently being taken for his own ghost, as was evident, indeed, on the night succeeding the destruction of the Albemarle. Immediately after this gale he was detached from the Shoboken and ordered to the Monticello, the command being given him, said Mr. Fox (for distinguished services rendered), and it is not a little amusing to find him, hot-headed as ever, while on shore awaiting his outfit, administer- ing summary chastisement to some men who had dared to speak disrespectfully of his uniform.
"In the winter of 1862 he was again blockading off the Carolina coast. This service must have been on many accounts an interesting one-the ships by day lying at their anchorage out of the enemy's range, by night drawing together in one long line across the bar in order that none of the leaden hulls of the runners, so skillfully mingling with the tints of mist and twilight, might elude them, and always on guard against shoal and reef and the coming out of the moon to show them close under a hundred rebel cannon, pointed at different altitudes, so that one might do what another failed to do. There were also cruisers stationed farther out, whose duty it was to determine what ought to be the whereabouts of richly laden escaping steamers, taking into account the probable time of escape, moon and tide and speed, a lookout being always aloft to give the cry, and start the chase that would presently overhaul a million dollars for prize. Such work, however, was not adventurous enough for Lieut. Cushing's fancy, and he deter- mined to celebrate Washington's birthday in a more exciting manner, by taking and hold- ing Smith's Island, close to the enemy, one of the outlets of Cape Fear River, which would have been an event of great importance. Failing to obtain permission, through his senior officer's fear of assuming responsibility, although the undertaking proceeded on the assumption of such complete security in the strength of their position on the part of the enemy that every precau- tion which could stand in the way of a surprise was most probably omitted, and indignant with what seemed to him a lack of dash and spirit where it could be of any service, the young man at once proceeded to act for himself, and we have never heard of any instance since the days of windy Troy to compare with that night's adventure ; for as he was not allowed the means to carry out his original proposition, Lieut. Cushing had gravely assured his senior that in order to prove to him how completely feasible it was, he would have the honor of bringing off the Con- federate commanding officer to breakfast with him in the morning. All lovers of heroism will remember the passage of the Iliad where Ulysses and Diomed leave the circle of old kings sitting around the field-fire in the dead of the night, and, exploring the hostile camps, take the spy Dolon and destroy Rhesus in his tent, and bring off the
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