Download Free Commander Will Cushing Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Commander Will Cushing and write the review.

“Superbly entertaining.”—S. C. Gwynne, best-selling author of Empire of the Summer Moon October 1864. The confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle had sunk two federal warships and damaged seven others, taking control of the Roanoke River and threatening the Union blockade. Twenty-one-year-old navy lieutenant William Barker Cushing hatched a daring plan: to attack the fearsome warship with a few dozen men in two small wooden boats. What followed, the close-range torpedoing of the Albemarle and Cushing’s harrowing two-day escape downriver from vengeful Rebel posses, is one of the most dramatic individual exploits in American military history. Theodore Roosevelt said that Cushing “comes next to Farragut on the hero roll of American naval history,” but most have never heard of him today. Tossed out of the Naval Academy for “buffoonery,” Cushing proved himself a prodigy in behind-the-lines warfare. Given command of a small union ship, he performed daring, near-suicidal raids, “cutting out” confederate ships and thwarting blockade runners. With higher commands and larger ships, Cushing’s exploits grow bolder, culminating in the sinking of the Albemarle. A thrilling narrative biography, steeped in the tactics, weaponry, and battle techniques of the Union Navy, Commander Will Cushing brings to life a compelling yet flawed figure. Along with his three brothers, including one who fell at Gettysburg, Cushing served with bravery and heroism. But he was irascible and complicated—a loveable rogue, prideful and impulsive, who nonetheless possessed a genius for combat. In telling Cushing’s story, Malanowski paints a vivid, memorable portrait of the army officials, engineers, and politicians scrambling to win the war. But he also goes deeper into the psychology of the daredevil soldier—and what this heroic and tragic figure, who died before his time, can tell us about the ways we remember the glories of war.
Civil War Ironclads and Commandos Here at last is an action-packed portrait of one of America’s greatest but little-remembered Civil War heroes, Commander William Barker Cushing, who sank the Confederate ironclad Albemarle in a spectacular mission in 1864. Regarded as erratic and insubordinate, Midshipman Cushing was drummed out of the Naval Academy in March 1861. But with the outbreak of war, the Union needed every trained officer it could find— and whatever his flaws, Cushing was an extremely talented naval officer. Ferocious, uncompromising, courageous, and loyal, he became a U.S. Navy commando and at the age of twenty-one was sent to destroy the South’s ultimate naval weapon—the Albemarle, an unsinkable vessel with a devastating iron ram. This death-defying mission succeeded in sinking the Albemarle, helped reelect President Abraham Lincoln, and earned Cushing a hero’s grave in the Naval Academy’s cemetery. Here is that story, told with all the verve and drama it deserves, shining new light on one of the most important naval encounters of the war. Civil War Commando is a masterpiece of naval history that reads like a thriller and gives a neglected hero his due.
First Lieutenant Cushing was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by the pPresident of the United States on November 6, 2014, 151 years after his death at the Angle at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, where he commanded Battery A, Fourth United States Artillery. He is likely the last Civil War soldier to who will be so honored. Although many individuals were involved in the effort to give the Medal of Honor to Cushing, this book, first published in 1993, played a critical role.
Dismissed from the U.S. Naval Academy in early 1861, William Barker Cushing nonetheless emerged from the Civil War as one of the NavyÆs greatest heroes. Cushing transformed his reputation from a rabblerouser into a living legend, because he embodied the special qualities that the Navy demands of the men in whom it entrusts its most hazardous and secret tasks: a readiness to volunteer for dangerous assignments, an unflagging devotion to duty, and more than a fair share of good fortune. As Robert J. Schneller observes, He was patriotic, aggressive, tough, and recklessly bold. Before embarking on.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
On October 27, 1864, two marvels of the Civil War collided on the Roanoke River near Plymouth, North Carolina. The first was the formidable Confederate ironclad Albemarle, a 376-ton behemoth that had for months roamed the nearby rivers and waters of Albemarle Sound, defeating in turn everything the Federal Navy could throw at it. The second was William B. Cushing, a 21-year-old Federal naval lieutenant who had been selected to lead a virtual suicide mission to destroy the ironclad in her berth. This chronicle of the young officer's "David vs. Goliath" victory over the daunting ironclad presents a tale of courage and accomplishment.
This captivating book details the life of one of the Union navy's most heroic young officers and his involvement in the Southern blockade and the sinking of the ironclad Albemarle.
As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer. While Hess analyzes Bragg's many campaigns and battles, he also emphasizes how his contemporaries viewed his successes and failures and how these reactions affected Bragg both personally and professionally. The testimony and opinions of other members of the Confederate army--including Bragg's superiors, his fellow generals, and his subordinates--reveal how the general became a symbol for the larger military failures that undid the Confederacy. By connecting the general's personal life to his military career, Hess positions Bragg as a figure saddled with unwarranted infamy and humanizes him as a flawed yet misunderstood figure in Civil War history.