Lisbon Village (part 3 of 5)

1 o'clock that morning, passing on to the little town of Abbeville, which contained only three families. We stopped to feed the horses with corn. Here I ascertained that the wagons had gone in the direction of Irwinsville. Just as we were leaving Abbeville, four Union soldiers appeared. They informed me that they belonged to the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, Lieut. Col. Pritchard commanding, and that he, with his regiment, was advancing on the Hawkinsville road, not far distant. Believing it to be my duty, as an officer, to communicate to Lieut. Col. Pritchard the information in my possession in regard to Jeff Davis, I sent Lieut. Clinton, in charge of the comlnand, forward on the Irwinsville road, going attended only by an orderly, to meet Lieut. Col. Pritchard. I gave to him all the information in my possession in regard to Jeff Davis. I informed him that Jeff Davis and family had passed that morning in the direction of Irwinsville, and that my command had gone in pursuit ; also that a part of his train, with an escort, was still on the east side of the river. Lieut. Col. Pritchard informed me that he was out after Jeff Davis, but until then, had heard nothing from Mm ; and that his orders were to camp at Abbeville, and guard ine ferries on the river, offering me at the same time some of his men, if I needed them. I declined the offer as my force was ample ; and it was very difiBcult to get subsistence for men and horses, and neither of our commands had any rations. Parting with Lieut. Col. Pritchard about 2 o'clock P. M., I hastened on and overtook my command about eight or ten miles from Abbeville. We came upon a place where the I'avis party had stopped to feed and rest ; they had left so recently that their tire was still burning. We passed on until after dark, probably about 9 o'clock, when, coming toi water. I ordered a halt, giving orders to graze the horses a short time, as we had no corn, and be ready for an early start. At the time I knew that the Davis party was not very far away, and so informed my command ; but I supposed we were near the Alapaha River, and that the Davis party had probably crossed over. I had been informed that the ford was difficult, and I did not want to come down to the river in the night for fear of alarming Mr. Davis, and enabling him to escape on horseback under cover of the darkness. We had made this day about forty-five miles. May 10, started at 3 o'clock A. M. : we had marched a mile or so when the advance, under Sergt. Hussey (who was an experienced soldier) was suddenly halted and ordered to dismount. Thinking, of course, he was upon the rebel picket, the sergeant answered, " Friends," at the same time giving the word to his six men to retreat, when a heavy volley was fired upon him and his party. This was quickly followed by the second volley. I called for ten men and dashed ahead to where the volley had been fired, when we were greeted by a third volley, from what I judged to be from twenty to thirty muskets. It was so dark that I could distinguish no one, and only saw at this time the fire from their guns. I then rapidly formed my line, dismounting about one-half of my force.

We then pressed on the enemy ; after one charge, we forced them into a swamp. At this juncture, I saw a line of mounted men near, on my left. Ordering Sergt. Horr, with a small party, to pursue the enemy, who had disappeared in the swamp, I turned, with my whole remaining force, against their mounted men, who I saw greatly outnumbered my own. The firing was continued on both sides with spirit, until Sergt. Horr came running to me, saying that he had captured a prisoner, and that our opposers were Union troops. I instantly gave orders to stop firing, which was soon followed by a cessation on the part of our opponents. I then rode forward, and the first man I met was Lieut. Col. Pritchard. I asked him how he came to be fighting us. He said that after we had parted at Abbeville, he had selected a portion of his best mounted men and taken another way, and had got to Irwinsville first, and that the wagon train had just been captured, near at hand. I inquired of him if Davis was taken ; he said he did not know. He and I then crossed over a narrow strip of swamp, about fifty yards wide, when we found the wagon train and Jeff. Davis and party, guarded by a small force of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. Ascertaining that the whole party were prisoners, and that my mission was ended, I prepared to return to Macon, where I arrived on the 13th of May, 1865. Of my men, there were wounded, Corp. G. W. Sykes, of Company D, arm badly shattered near the shoulder ; Private C. W. Seeley, Company D, wounded in the leg severely ; Nelson Apley, Company D, in the shoulder slightly. This affair took place about twenty-five miles from Abbeville, and within one mile of Irwinsville, Irwin Co., Ga. Of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, two men were killed and one officer badly wounded. I will here say that I had no intimation of the presence of any Union troops nearer than Abbeville, and that I believed all the while that we were fighting with Jeff. Davis' escort. Had we not been waylaid and fired upon by the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, we should, without a doubt, have captured Jeff Davis even sooner than it was effected. For further information, I will refer to my official report, made to Gen. Croxton upon my return to Macon. In view of all the facts, I do, for myself and the officers and men of my command who were with me at the time of the capture, claim a due share of the reward offered by the President for the capture of Jeff Davis.

Only the following two sworn statements by men of integrity and honor, who knew the fa:cts and which add strength, if possible, to Col. Harnden's deposition, will be given :

James J. Aplin, being duly sworn on oath, says, that he was a private "in Compiny K of the First Regiment of Wisconsin Cavalry ; that he acted as Orderly for Lieut. Col. Henry Harnden, and was with him in the pursuit and capture of Jeff Davis ; that he heard the conversation between Lieut. Col. Pritchard and Lieut. Col. Harnden, referred to in the statement of the latter; that he knew of his own knowledge that all the facts set forth in the whole of said statement are triie. James J. Aplin.

Orson P. Clinton, being duly sworn on oath, says, that he was Second Lieutenant of Company B, First Regiment of Wisconsin Cavalry, and with Lieut. Col. Harnden during the pursuit and capture of Jeff Davis: that he has heard read the foregoing statement made by Lieut. Col. Harnden, and knows the contents thereof; that the same is true of his Itnowledge (except the conversation referred to with Lieut. Col. Pritchard), which he verily believes to be true.

In his detailed testimony, Mr. Clinton made, among others, the following sworn statement : '' There was a great deal said as to who was to be blamed for the collision in which the Fourth Michigan lost two men. I did not, neither did I hear any one else blame Col. Harnden ; but all blamed Col. Pritchard. I talked with a number of the men who first fired into us, and they all said they had no instructions as to the probability of our coming up that road. Others said that Col. Harnden had hardly got out of sight on the day before when Col. Pritchard ordered a detail of fifty of his best mounted men and marched rapidly all night on another road until they came in ahead of us on the road we had followed all along, and immediately made arrangements for Davis' capture, colliding with us as above recited.

Mr. Clinton's whole statement, which is lengthy and made under oath, does not diifer from Col. Harnden's, Sergt. Maj. Hargrave's or the others. It is not necessary, therefore, to incorporate more of it. It is proper to add that Pritchard made a sworn deposition also, in which, however, he was careful not to commit himself to any very positive statement of important facts. Lieut. Purinton, who commanded the advance that fired upon Lieut. Hussey and his men, also swore to a document in which the main facts recited by Col. Harnden are corroborated, and in which he unwittingly, no doubt, opens wide the door -which shows that Pritchard and his men "knew for certain that they were not firing upon Jeff Davis and his party, or any portion of them. He swears that he found the Davis camp; reconnoitered until he found out that the camp had no outposts, and that as it was comprised of teams, tents and wagons, he " knew it was the Davis camp." If he knew it was the Davis camp, then he knew equally well that the men advancing upon Davis' trail were not the Davis party, therefore must be Union soldiers. In his lengthy sworn statement, Pritchard says he thought, perhaps, the advancing squad his men fired upon was not composed of Union soldiers, as he "did not know but what he (Harnden) mjjfAi have taken some other route" instead of following the Davis trail, which he had been following so closely for days. The italics in this last sentence are Pritchard's. This bears strong marks of being everything but the truth. He knew that Col. Harnden knew of the whereabouts of Davis. In fact. Col. Harnden knew so well of Davis' whereabouts, that he directed Pritchard in such a certain manner that the latter had gone straight to the Davis camp without the arduous labor of following a trail. Pritchard also swears himself into an unenviable position in another statement. He says he himself, after coming upon the Davis party, took pains to satisfy himself that it was not the First Wisconsin camp. Then, knowing there were but two parties beside his own anywhere in that country, and having discovered and surrounded the one which he knew was not the Wisconsin detachment, he knew past all doubt, and so did Purinton, that the other, upon which he fired, was the Wisconsin detachment. No other conclusion is possible from Pritchard's and Purinton's sworn testimony.

If Pritchard and Purinton had never made any sworn statements, the world would probably have thought one party was as much to be blamed as the other ; now, however, all doubt is cleared away - Col. La Grange's indorsement cannot but be considered a just one, and a true statement of actual facts.

Madison, Wis., March 27, 1880. Frank A. Flower, Esq. - Dear Sir: Yours of the 25th inst., containing inclosure, is this morning received. Your article upon the subject of the capture of Jeff Davis is, in the main, correct, and I do not think I care to add anything to it. The whole subject, to me, is intensely disagreeable. Benjamin F. Pritchard ia a lawyer at Kalama" 300, Mich., I think. He claims that he was not informed of the reward being offered when he started on his expedition.* . . . Lieut. Hussey was one of the bravest men in our army. KespectfuUy,

Col. Harnden. on account of his frankness and honesty, was dubbed the " Puritan Colonel." He was too frank, while confiding in Pritchard, at Poor Robbin Ferry. But he was, nevertheless, an obstinate fighter, and a brave man. Once, having been severely wounded, being unable to stand, he braced himself against a tree and continued to shoot every rebel that came within range, as long as any were in sight.

Career of Commander William B. Cusking. - The soldier dead are, as a matter of fact, all illustrious - all worthy of conspicuous places in history. But the historian is frustrated on every hand, in the attempt to do them justice, by a total lack of proper materials ; and only those, therefore, whose record has fortunately been preserved, and been furnished by living friends, can be enrolled.

No more glorious name ever added luster to the resplendent escutcheon of fame than that of Commander William B. Gushing, a native of Waukesha County. In the results of the use of the limited authority he h9,d, he was greater than a Lawrence or a Perry. A volume like this might be filled with a recital of his deeds of patriotism and valor, and no apology will be given for the space devoted to them here. They will be read with increasing interest as time goes on and they continue to shine brighter and brighter in the halo of glory that forever will illumine the

* Several of those present at the capture of Jeff DaTis have been personally questioned, who say that Pritchard learned of the reward of $100,000 while on the road in pursuit of Mr. Daris, and that the fact was known to him at his meeting with Col. Harnden at Abbeville. JPritchard*s statement that he knew of no reward when he " started on his expedition *' is thus questionably sustained. He knew it a/i!er he started.

graves and names of American soldiers. The following descriptive masterpiece was written by Harriet Prescott Spofford, and appeared in Harper s Monthly for June 1874 :

"The world just now is full of heroes, for the wars of the late decade are resplendent with actions well fulfilling the poet's prophecy of the period when

But among all the laureled number it has not been our fortune to hear of any whose exploits eclipse in brilliancy and elan those of one of our young naval officers, who entered the lists a stripling, and whom the close of the war found, at the age of twenty-two, with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and with the engrossed thanks of Congress and of the Navy Department in his possession, together with countless testimonials, medals, and acknowledgments from Generals of division, Union Leagues, and corporate bodies in all parts of the country ; tributes to deeds which bring back to us a remembrance of those of the old heroic days - deeds so great that men became great through the mere recital of them. And certainly he who so often and so gallantly risked life and fame for his country as Lieutenant Commander William B. Cushing did, deserves some other record than the disjointed and fragmentary one hidden away in the archives of the Bureau of State ; and it is a task full of interest to gather one rumor and another, sift their truth, and put official statement by statement, till the story of those five glorious years of his service stands complete.

Midshipman Cushing sailed from Boston in the frigate Minnesota, and reached Hampton Hoads in May, 1861 - a lad then scarcely seventeen years old, but fully determined upon playing a great part in the great events to come. The Cumberland, the Quaker City, and the Monticello, men-of-war, all lay in the Roads, and the latter of them, which has the honor of having .been the first ship under fire in the Rebellion, young Cushing subsequently commanded. The fieet had been at anchor a single day when five schooners, loaded with tobacco, were captured ; and that night the young midshipman took into port the Delaware Farmer, the first prize of the war. During the next month he was on duty with the blockading squadron on the Carolina eoast ; but in August he was again in Hampton Roads, and was in the first launch with those sent to storm a battery and burn some small vessels ; and in the same month he sailed in the Minnesota to the assault of the Hatteras forts, the squadron consisting of the flagship with six other men-of-war and some steam-transports, and being the largest that had ever sailed together under the American flag. The waters to which Hatteras Inlet gave entrance at that time swarmed with privateers and blockade-runners, and its possession was an object of importance, and was guarded by the two forts, Clark and Hatteras. As the squadron moved into line, and the first shot fired by the Wabash was answered by the rebel gans instantaneously, and every ship aeemed suddenly sheeted in flame, the scene heightened by the contrast of perfect peace otherwise on sea and sky during all the bright summer day, we can easily imagine what an experience it was to the boy for the first time under the fire of one of those engagements to which his fancy had thrilled a thousand times, and his enjoyment of it may be known by the eagerness with which from that moment he plunged into everything affording any promise of the same excitement and danger.

" During the following winter Midshipman Cushing did blockading duty on the Cambridge, and saw some hot work with a party " cutting out " a schooner up a narrow stream, being attacked by and defeating a large body of infantry and artillery. He was often in this stormy season out in open boats for hours together, with the sea breaking over him, till it was necessary to hoist him on board, too stiff with ice and sleet to bend a joint. But it was at this time the great Merrimac fight came off, a part of which he was - a part of' the Saturday's black despondency that saw the Cumberland go down and the white flag flutter from the peak of the Congress, of the Saturday's superb confidence, when the rebel giant, with the sun glistening on her iron shields, bore down on her grounded antagonist, and never seeming to see an idle mote in the distance till a 200-pounder came from it, crashing through her consort, which 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 afiair that might be similar to the seven days' battle, he boldly made ofi"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 irresponsible 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 undertakings. 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 afiair 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 ofi' 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 flrst greetings were over he saw one take from under the collar of his blouse 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 impassable barricade, an abatis formed of the great trees felled from both banks directly across the stream, at a point wliere 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. Gushing, 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 %ing into the assailants with a will. It had the efi"ect 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, 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 'spart to keep theshipsin 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 thbusand 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 ttat 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. Gushing 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 parlance, she could float on a heavy dew; and in her the young ofl5cer, aged nineteen, resolved upon noble achievements.

"After capturing the town of Swansboro, taking and being obliged to burn the Adelaide, with a cargo worth $100,000, and destroying many important salt works, Lieut. Gushing 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 ofiBcial report of the affair, to his senior ofiicer, 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 St\tes Steamer Hetzel, November 26, 1862. Sir : I have the honor to report that I entered New Eiver 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 sweep the r^ver, 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 surprise the enemy in going up, and then to fight my way out. Five miles from the mouth, I came in sight of a vessel bound outward, with a load of cotton and turpentine. The enemy fired her to prevent her falling into our hands. I ran alongside, made sure that they could not extinguish the flames, and again steamed up the river. At 1 P. M., I reached the town of Jacksonville, lauded, threw out my pickets, and placed guards over the public buildings. 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 ofiice, quite a large mail, and two schooners. I also confiscated the negroes of the Confederate Postmaster. I forgot to mention that the town is situated upon the main turnpike road from Wilmington. Several rebel officers escaped as I neared the town, and carried the news to that city.

At 2:80 P. JL, 1 started down the river, and at 5 P. M. came in sight of a camp on the bank, which I thoroughly shelled. At the point where the schooner captured in the moroing was still burning, the enemy opened fire on the Ellis with rifles, 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 steamer from the river that night. High water and daylight were two things absolutely essential in order to take her out. I therefore came to anchor five miles from the outer bar, took my prizes alongside, 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 vessel in position, at once hoisted the battle-flag at the fore, the crew gave it three cheers, 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 was here destined to meet with an accident that changed the fortunes of the day, and resulted in the destrnction of my vessel. About five hundred yards from the bluffs, the pilots, mistaking the channel, ran the Ellis hard and fast aground. All hands went to work at once to lighten her, and anchors and sjeam were used to get her afloat, but without success. 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 sent 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. X proposed to construct a shore battery to assist in the defense of my vessel by keeping the rebels 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 tons 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 becatoe 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 Tolunteers 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 number. 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, bat 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 w.as 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 civalry trying to reach the mouth of the inlet in time to cut us oif. 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 rendered useless that were to have been used for hoarding.

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. Gushing 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 foUow^im - 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 approaching 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 fathoms 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 ail- 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 oflF 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. Gushing 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. Accordingly 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.

the lead turn deathly pale as he sang out, ' Breakers ahead ! For God's sake, sir, go ahout ! ' 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. Gushing 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 - preferring 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'a 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 B. 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. Gushing at once proceeded to the field with the double purpose of procuring 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. Gushing, 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 - thatof 1863 - theLieutenant 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 aachored 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 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 sailors 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 dingv, while a great amount of ordering and answering passed between supposititious 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, administering summary chastisement to some men who had dared to speak disrespectfully of his uniform.

" In the winter of 1862 he was again blockading oiF 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 determined to celebrate Washington's birthday in a more exciting manner, by taking and holding 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 ofiicer'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 precaution 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 da/s 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 Confederate 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

" He had already, on a reconnaissance, found that the rebel confidence was so great that when grazing the very face of the forts he had received no challenge, and therefore on this night he took twenty men, entered the Cape Fear River, and pulled directly up to Smithville, the rebel headquarters, landing before the hotel, perhaps twenty-five yards from the fort, and hiding his men on the shore. Obtaining from a negro at a salt work on the bank the requisite information, with two of his officers he crept at midnight, when not a sound disturbed the air, up the principal street to the commanding Greneral's residence, a large house, with verandas, opposite the barracks, where, about fifteen yards off, lay twelve hundred men without a dream of danger. There had been a gay gathering, apparently, in the house that evening, and delaying till after the guests had gone and the occupants might be supposed to sleep, Lieut. Gushing noiselessly tried the unbolted door, entered the hall, glanced into a mess-room, and then ascended the stairs. But at the moment of softly opening the door of a sleeping-room he heard a crash and the whispered call of his ofiicer, below, and quickly springing to answer it, he found that his other companion, whom he had left on the veranda, had, in a sublime confidence that the place was already taken, gone strutting up and down, awaking the Confederate Adjutant General, who, throwing up a window, found himself suddenly looking into the muzzle of a navy revolver, upon which the sash had been dropped with a clang, and the Adjutant, escaping through a back-door, had made for the brush. In an instant the Lieutenant was in the room, and struck a wax match, had floored the remaining occupant, the chief engineer of the forces there, and with his pistol at the head of the man, still half dazed with sleep, threatening to blow out his brains if he spoke, had made him put on some clothes, had learned from him that the commanding General had gone that day to Wilmington, had possessed himself of the Adjutant General's papers and plans, and was in his boat again and in the middle of the stream before the outraged rebels had gained their senses, or had begun to swarm out and fill the air with cries and calls ; and while the signal-lights were flashing to the forts below, and the long roll calling to arms, he was pulling quietly aboard his ship, and carrying the chief engineer of the enemy, snatched from the very teeth of that enemy, to breakfast with his commander - if not exactly what he had promised, at least the next best thing. There being occasion on the following day to send in a flag of truce, a note was dispatched by it, of which a copy is given below :

" Of course, after the first burst of indignation, the' matter was taken very good-naturedly by the offended party, but this note was declared to be the very climax of impudence, and Lieut. Gushing was given very distinctly to understand that his experiment could not be repeated - a gage which he had no opportunity to take up until the following June.

''Having been undergoing repairs at Norfolk, in June Lieut. Gushing returned to Beaufort, his coaling station, and there learned that a rebel iron-clad, the Raleigh, had been defying the fleet after wanton fashion, and, conscious of her strength, had not only convoyed blockade-runners through the intimidated squadron, but had remained out of harbor for several hours, only returning at her leisure after daybreak. Of course the younger officers of the navy were burning with resentment, and Lieut. Gushing, in the Monticello, accompanied by the Vicksburg, immediately started in pursuit, though unsuccessfully, as she had taken harbor ; and it was not until a letter came from Admiral Lee himself that Lieut. Gushing was allowed the men and boats that he desired to go upon an expedition inside the bar, and to avenge the insult the navy had received by boarding and taking possession of the Raleigh where she lay. After dark, then, one night late in June, with fifteen men and two officers - Mr. Howorth and Mr. Martin - he slipped into the harbor, passing Forts Caswell and Holmes and the other batteries, and pulled up the river with muffled oars, just escaping being run down by a tug, and passing the town of Smithville - the scene of his capture of the chief engineer - in safety. His object was to determine the whereabouts of the Raleigh, and then to return and bring back a hundred men to board her. The Raleigh, however, was not to be seen anywhere, either inside the bar or at quarantine, and he accordingly pursued his course up stream, although a strong current made it best for him to in the tideway, knowing they would knock about safely there till morning, when they would be hazard pulling on the side where the moon lay. Just as the boat reached Fort Anderson, there came a sentry's hail, followed by the shouting of a dozen other voices and a quick volley of musketry. Immediately, the Lieutenant put the boat about and pointed her head down stream, and, giving the helm a turn so as to present the least possible surface to the moon's rays, he cut across into the shadow of the other bank, where he once more made his way to the river, leaving the enemy to pursue an imaginary foe in the opposite direction.

When within four miles of the city, it being nearly day light, the crew went ashore, and drawing the boat by means of their united strength into a patch of swamp, they masked her with branches of trees, and disposed of themselves in the growth along the bank. Here during the long summer's day they saw several steamers going unsuspiciously up and down the river, with the rebel Commodore's flag-ship and many smaller crafts, but there was no sign of the iron-clad to be seen. At twilight, however, fancying that an approaching party of fishermen in a couple of boats was a discovery and an attack, Lieut. Gushing stepped from his hiding-place, hailed them, and boldly ordered them to surrender, which the gentle creatures did upon the spot. From these prisoners he ascertained that there wSiS very good reason for his not finding the Raleigh at her anchorage, nature having taken the matter out of the Lieutenant's hands ; for, having run upon a sand bar some time previously, the iron-clad, with the falling of the tide, had broken in two by her own weight, and was now an utter wreck. Being satisfied that this was really the case, Lieut. Gushing resolved, before returning, to obtain all the information possible concerning the batteries and obstructions of the place, knowing that a movement upon it was already in contemplation. Having mastered all the facts of the forts and channels, he at last stationed himself with eight men at a junction of the main turnpike with two other roads, hardly two miles from the city and all its swarms of soldiery and lines of fortifications. The first thing done was to capture the army mail-carrier with his mail of between four and five hundred letters, among which were those containing plans of the rebel defenses, and other important documents ; and the adventurers being by this time rather hungry, and having taken prisoner a wandering storekeeper, Mr. Howorth put on the coat and cap of the mail-carrier, mounted his horse, and started for the town to procure provisions, his pocket being well lined with the Confederate money taken from the mail ; and he presently returned from his dangerous errand - one on which detection would have twisted a rope round his neck, with a very short shrift - bringing in good refreshments, and having mingled freely with the enemy, for whom he had been obliged to exert his inventive faculties after a manner that would have done justice to the best romancer living. In the mean time, the Lieutenant and his men had not been idle, and they were now guarding twenty-six prisoners under the most excellent discipline since a shout from any one of them would have brought an army about their ears ; and he was now only waiting for the evening courier with the Richmond mail before rejoining the remainder of his party and putting oiF for sea. He decided, however, to send his prisoners to the boat, and it was just as they were crossing the road that the mail-carrier came in sight, accompanied by a Confederate ofHcer, who, drawing a swift conclusion, turned about to flee. Being mounted on the horse of one of the prisoners, the Lieutenant instantly gave chase, but to no purpose, as his horse was neither one of the best nor the freshest; and thereupon, cutting the telegraph wires in two places, he hastened to his boat, which now lay moored in a little creek, put the prisoners into the canoes which had been picked up, and dropped down toward the river, which was reached exactly as the shadows of night darkened it pleasantly. It had been the Lieutenant's intention to leave the greater part of his prisoners on the lighthouse island in the river, having captured them merely to secure their silence ; but just as he was putting in under the bank for that purpose the steamer Virginia came pufiing close upon him. In a breath the order was given for every man to jump overboard and push the boats into the marsh grass, and the prisoners were promised instant death upon the first sign ; and while every head was held under the gunwale for a moment, the steamer plowed by without suspicion. Having eluded this danger, Lieut. Gushing now removed the oars and sails from the canoes, and set twenty of his prisoners adrift seen and cared for from shore ; and attaching to a buoy, where it could not fail to be seen and taken oflf, a note, in which he happily recalled to the memory of the authorities their declaration that he would not again enter their harbor, he made all haste for sea, intending to pass through the upper outlet, and having' Forts Anderson and Fisher to pass, together with the island and outer batteries. It was a little below Fort Anderson that, encountering a boat-load of soldiers, he captured them without ado, and learned that a guard-boat containing seventy-five men awaited him on the bar. This was not unexpected ; and the fresh prisoners having been menaced with assurance of their due deserts if they attempted aid or comfort to the enemy at the critical time, it was resolved by the Lieutenant and his officers to pull for the bar, the tide setting down strongly, lay themselves alongside the guard-boat in the bright moonlight, and while engaging the men there with cutlases and revolvers, drift with them by the batteries, which, since they could not destroy them without firing on their own men, would be likely to let them pass. It was no great while before glimpses were caught of a boat rocking on the tide below them, and they eagerly made for it, quite confident of their ability to occupy many times their own number of land-lubbers until they should be out of range of the batteries, when it would be just as easy to l«ave their foe behind. .But when still some yards distant from the boat, and just preparing to open a broadside upon it, suddenly four other boats darted out from behind a neighboring point, and five from the opposite island, and formed a line across the bar, completely entrapping the Lieutenant and his men, while at the same time, going short round, a large sailboat was discovered to windward. Misfortune could hardly have seemed more imminent and absolute, and if anything could be done it must be done on the instant. The river, as it chanced, divided at that point round an island, making two channels, one that up which they had passed on the preceding night from Fort Caswell, now lying seven miles below, and which it would have been madness to try, since it would have brought them opposite Smithville and the forts by broad daylight, even if the southwest gale had not been blowing there, and making breakers in which the boat would have been crushed like a bubble. Of course, then, their only hope was to circumvent the enemy, so that the other and shorter channel might be gained, at whose entrance no such dangerous sea was to be encountered. Quickly giving the word to his men, the Lieutenant darted ofi' with his boat as if for Smithville, passing the large sail-boat ; then suddenly sheering, so as to escape the full moonlight (as in going by Fort Anderson the night before), he was for one moment invisible in the swell, and the whole ten boats were after him on the way to Smithville - boats manned by soldiers instead of sailors, who were, therefore, totally unaware of the impossibility of exit by that channel. Seizing the opportunity, the Lieutenant boldly turned about, and when he came in sight again was making for the sail-boat as if he intended to board her. Of course, the crew of the sail-boat, unused to such contests, hesitated, and started to tack, but missed stays, and drifted away on the tide, before they could recover themselves, while the crew of the Lieutenant's boat, bending all their strength to the oars, darted round in a broad curve astern the line of boats, and were in the desired channel, a hundred yards in advance of all the rest, before their object was fairly understood ; and heading for the breakers on Carolina Shoals, lest on another course the batteries should blow them to atoms - breakers which the boats rowed by soldiers could not dare dream of attempting - -they took the great waves safely, and were presently past all pursuit. The results of this expedition were so important, and the conduct of it so remarkable, that we are not surprised to find its leader again receiving the formal thanks of the Navy Department. Indeed, these official congratulations became apparently quite a matter of course ; and in the following October he was earning them again, together not only with the engrossed thanks of the Congress of the United States, and addresses from chambers of commerce, boards of trade, municipalities, and clubs without number, but with the more substantial reward of a promotion to the grade of Lieutenant Commander, at the age of twenty-one, all in recognition of his destruction of the rebel ram Albemarle, an iron-clad of the same model as the Merrimac, which had done great damage, and met the fire of hundred-pounder Dahlgrens and Parrotts at ten yards range without injury.

" Directly upon his promotion the young hero took command of the flag-ship Malvern, bearing the broad pennant of the rear-admiral, and in December was part of the force operating against Fort Fisher. Here Commander Gushing performed what, with the exception of the Albemarle affair, was in reality the most dangerous exploit in all his term of service, and one requiring a more steady courage, being nothing less than the buoying of a channel in an open skiiF - a skiff rivaling the famous little boat of the battle of Lake Erie - in the midst of a shower of round shot, shell and shrapnel, the. work continuing for six hours, the skiff frequently half filled with water by the plunging shot, and its companion being sunk.

" During the brief cessation of more active operations against the Wilmington forts. Commander Cashing offered battle to the Chickamauga, a rebel privateer carrying an extra crew ; but the challenge being declined, he drove a large blockade-runner ashore under her nose, and returned to the fleet, which, on the 12th of January, resumed the attack upon the forts, the ships being sixty in number, comprising iron-clads, frigates, slbops of war and gunboats. An assault being ordered, after three days' bombardment, Commander Gushing, with other oflicers, accompanied the force of sailors and marines about to storm the sea-front of Fort Fisher. Marching to within a few hundred yards of the embrasures, the entire body threw themselves down under the slope of the beach, waiting for the signal of attack, the whole fire of the navy passing with a deafening noise just over their heads. Springing to their feet at the word of command, they moved forward steadily over the soft white sand, which the sunshine made dazzling, and the relief of which rendered every ofiicer in his uniform of blue and gold-lace - and, indeed every man - a conspicuous target, the rebels meanwhile pouring forth an unceasing fire that cut down their foes in windrows. Finding himself alone at last, just after reaching the palisades, Commander Gushing turned to rally his men, and was obliged to cross a hundred yards of the bare sand with the bullets pattering about him in such wise that it seems as if he must have borne a charmed life. Most of the ranking oflBcers were either dead or badly wounded by that time, or else remaining under shelter of the palisades till nightfall - more fortunate than their comrades, who, dropping on the beach, were swept out to sea by the rising and falling of the tide - he therefore assumed the command himself, and gathered some hundreds of men with great effort, he was again proceeding to the assault, when requested to relieve with them a regiment which went to the assistance of the army on the other side, which was operating to such effect under the gallant Gen. Ames that before midnight the works had surrendered.

" The first important action of Commander Gushing after the surrender was the seizure of the pilots who had so many times safely steered the blockade-runners into port; and when his preparations to hang them had thoroughly frightened them into obedience, he agreed to spare their lives on condition of their erecting customary signal lights on Oak Island, by which the blockade-running steamers came in and out. Accordingly, some four or five days after the capture of the forts, the large blockade-running steamer Charlotte, trusting to the lights, came over the bar and made her private signals to Fort Caswell, and being hailed and told that the signal corps had been withdrawn to Smithville, came confidently up to her anchorage. She was commanded by a British ex-naval officer, and she carried, among her other passengers, two officers of the British army, coming over to see the Confederate sport, and the owners of her costly cargo of arms and munitions - all of whom, in great glee at the successful termination of their hazardous enterprise, had just sat down to a sumptuous banquet, and were toasting their safe arrival in champagne. Suddenly the door opened, a light form stepped in, a hand was laid upon the captain's chair, and every one looked up in amazement, to meet the gaze of these dauntless eagle-eyes of Commander Gushing, which no one who has once seen him is likely to forget. " Gentlemen," said he, " you are my prisoners. Allow me the pleasure of joining in your toast. Steward, another bottle of champagne !" Of course there was nothing but submission, for his men were already disposed about the deck, and the Charlotte was his prize. There was a moment or two of sullen silence, on the part of the discomfited passengers ; then one of the British officers looked at his vis-a-vis, and exclaimed, in noble rage, " I say - beastly luck ! " To which his comrade presently replied, in a voice proceeding from the depths of his disgust, "Unmitigated sell!" After which disembarrassment a better feeling prevailed, and the banquet was proceeding as gayly as the circumstances allowed, when Commander Gushing was summoned on deck with the announcement that another steamer, the Stag, was coming up the river, upon which he bade adieu to the festive scene, and proceeded to make prize of the second steamer. ,

" It would be easy to go on enumerating the days of this young officer by his valiant deeds ; to tell of the capture of small towns, of great storehouses of cotton, corn, and bacon ; of his examining the obstructions before Fort Anderson, and going so close in that, one night, exasperated by the speech-making and carousal there, he sent a bullet whistling through the astonished merry-makers, and in consequence very nearly robbed the navy of one of its brightest ornaments by the storm of grape that instantly scattered the water about him ; of his constructing a mock monitor out of an old flat-boat and some-painted canvas, and sending her past the fort on the night tide, so that the commandant, knowing the army to be in his rear, and seeing the gunboats gaining the stream above, abandoned his fortifications without spiking the guns. But an account has not yet been given of the greatest of his achievements, and it is perhaps enough to close with the story of his destruction of the Albemarle - a more daring and spirited act than we can call to mind out of the records of any navy.

" The Albemarle, as it has been mentioned, was an iron-clad of tremendous strength, which had already defeated the whole Federal fleet, sunk the Southfield, exploded the boiler of the Sassacus, engaged nine foes at once without danger to herself, forced the surrender of a brigade, and the abandonment of the whole region of the Roanoke by the Federal forces. The Government having no iron-clads capable of crossing Hatteras bar and encountering her, all its operations in that section were rendered practically useless by the Albemarle's presence there, and the expense of the squadron necessary to keep watch upon her movements was something enormous. In this emergency Lieut. Gushing submitted two plans to Admiral Lee for the ram's destruction. The Admiral approved of one of them, and sent its projector to Washington to lay it before the Secretary of the Navy, and the latter, though at first a little doubtful of its merit, finally authorized him to procure the means to carry it into execution ; and he immediately purchased in New York two open launches, each about thirty feet long, fitted with a small engine and propelled by screw, carrying a howitzer, and provided with a long boom that swung by a hinge, which could be raised or lowered at will, and which had a torpedo in the groove at its further extremity. These boats were taken down through the canals to the Ghesapeake, one of them being lost on the way, and the other reaching the sounds at last through cuts and creeks and an infinitude of toils, hindrances andruses. Joining the fleet which lay at the mouth of the river, the Lieutenant disclosed his object to his men, assuring them that they not only must not expect, but they must not hope to return, for death was almost inevitable, and then called for volunteers. They all stood by him, and six others presently joined them; Assistant Paymaster Frank Swan and Mr. Howorth, who had often accompanied him on his most reckless adventures, being of the number. The Albemarle lay moored at the Plymouth wharf, eight miles up the river, both banks of which were lined with batteries, and held by several thousand soldiers, while at some distance up, that portion of the wreck of the Southfield which still lay above water was occupied by a picket-guard, whose duty it was to throw up rockets on the first alarm, for, unknown to the attacking party, rumor of the intended endeavor had in some mysterious way already reached the Plymouth authorities, and every provision had been made for their reception. However, on the night of the 27th of October, the little launch entered the Roanoke River, her engine at low pressure, to make the least noise possible, left behind all obstructions, passed within thirty feet of the unsuspicious picket on the Southfield, and approached the wharf where the ram lay, a vast black mass in the darkness. Greatly emboldened by this success, the Lieutenant for a moment resolved to change his plan, and, knowing the town perfectly, to put in shore and trust to the efiiect of a night surprise, with which he was so well acquainted, overpower those on board, get her into the stream before the forts could be aroused, and fight the batteries with her on her way down. But just as he was about to carry his sudden plan into execution, a cry from the ram rang out sharply on the night, repeated on every side, followed by the instantaneous booming of the great guns from ship and shore ; and returning no answer, the Lieutenant put on all steam and made for her. At the same moment an immense bonfire of pine knots and turpentine blazed up on the bank, most fortunately for him, since it revealed directly the untoward fact that a boom of logs extended around the ram in all directions toguard her from torpedoes, which for one second seemed an insurmountable obstacle. Only for one second, though. With the next the lieutenant had given orders to sheer off across the stream, so as to get room for acquiring headway and carrying his launch by the force of its own impetus straight across the boom, though it never could get out again, he knew. As they turned, a volley of buckshot tore away the whole back of his coat and the sole of his shoe, and the man by his side fell lifeless. Before the volley could be repeated, the launch had struck the boom, was over, and was forging up under the Albermarle's quarter, directly beneath the mouth of a rifle-gun, and so close that the merest whisper on board the ram, where they were endeavoring to bring the gun to bear, could be distinctly heard.

" That must have been a terrifically exciting moment to those on the little launch, with the vast mountain of iron towering above them, the fire-lit mass of foes upon the shore, and triumph and eternity in the next moment. Lieut. Gushing stood at the bows of the launch, with several lines before him ; one of these lines was attached to the howitzer, one to the ankle of the engineer, one to the oflBcer who was to lower the boom carrying the torpedo, one was that by means of which the torpedo was to be slid under the ram, another was the exploding-line, which should pull away a pin and let a grape-shot drop on the percussion-cap beneath. The howitzer had already been discharged. The line attached to the engineer was pulled : the engine stopped. The boom was lowered, the torpedo slid slowly off and under, the air-chamber at top bringing it up in position beneath the ram. The last line was pulled, the grape-shot fell, just as the rifle-gun went off - and the rebel ram and the launch blew up together, and columns of water shot up and fell again, heavy with dead and dying. But just as Lieut. Gushing pulled the exploding line he had cried out to his men to save thettiselves, and throwing ^off arms and heavy garments, had struck out into the water. The surface was being rippled up with shot, boats were already out picking up the wounded, and dying men were going down with gurgling groans around him ; but he boldly made for the other bank, and was just reaching it, when he heard the voice of his own men in a sinking state, and turned to relieve, if possible, one who had shared such peril with him. Finding the man, he supported him with one arm and kept him afloat for several minutes, when all at once he went down, leaving the Lieutenant alone on the water, swimming with faint strokes, with what seemed interminable distances before him, but so firmly resolved to escape that, perhaps, after voluntary power was expended, the muscular motion still continued mechanically, and carried him at last to shore, where he fell, with his feet still in the water, and lay, not more than half conscious, till morning, when the bright, invigorating sunshine showed him that he had gained a piece of swamp not far from one of the forts, and from whence he could see the angry and excited town, with a curious sense of power in the midst of all his weakness. The sentinel, meanwhile, was walking his round on the parapet, and in order to make any shelter it was necessary to rise and run for it the moment his back was turned. Doing so, he was obliged, at the instant the sentinel turned about again, to drop where he was, between two paths of the tall grass, which partially sheltered him^ since, being covered with mud from head to foot, he was hardly distinguishable from the soil, as he presently found when a party of men came down one of the paths and passed so near him as almost to tread on his arm without discovering him. Knowing it would be impossible to remain there safely for any length of time, he lay on his back, planted his elbow and his heel firmly in the ground, and thus hitched himself slowly along till he- gained the cypress swamp, a mass of bog and brier, through which, barefooted, bare-headed and bare-handed, he had to force a path till the blood flowed from his innumerable wounds and bruises. Entering at last a clearing, a fresh danger appeared, in the shape of a group of soldiers, behind whom he had to pass at a distance of twenty yards, creeping through a corn furrow. He was now in the outskirts of a wood, and encountering an old negro.

he gave him a piece of money which had chanced to remain about him, and sent him back to town to bring him news of what had happened there over night; for he wished to be sure that he had 'done the work there thoroughly before making any more effort to get back to his ship ; and famished, exhausted, and with every nerve strung to its utmost tension, it seemed to him that if he had failed he did not care to get back at all. Vibrating, in bis suspense, between a fear that the man might betray him and a confidence that he would not, he rested there till the messenger came back, bringing him news of the complete destruction of the rebel ram, and he plunged gayly into another swamp, so dense that he could only direct himself by the sun, emerging from its tall reeds and brambles, a couple of hours past noon, upon one of the deep and narrow creeks that wind in and out through all those regions, exactly opposite a fresh detachment of soldiers on the other bank, and who, as fate willed it, had a little skiff made of four or five rough boards, with the seams pitched with tar, ' toggled to the root of an old cypress tree that squirmed like a snake into the inky water,' as he described it. Lying in wait in the dense greenery and shade till the men went back to their rude meal, he gently slipped between the reeds and slid into the water, swimming softly till he reached the skiff, loosened it, pushed it before him round the first curve, when he clambered in and paddled away for dear life; paddled all day, into sunset, into twilight, into starlight - such starlight as sifted down through the great shadows of the swamp and the cypressed-lined and moss-hung banks of the creek. At last he was in the Roanoke, at last in the open water of the sound, where a swell would have swamped the frail skiff, but where the night was singularly still and soft - though, as it was, he was obliged to paddle all upon one side to keep his boat on the course which he laid for himself by the stars. When he came, after a wearyjwhile, in sight of the picket vessel of the fleet, and, after what seemed a longer and still wearier while, within hail, he gave his " Ship ahoy ! " and dropped, gasping, benumbed, and half dead, into the bottom of the boat. But immediately on his hail the vessel had slipped her cable, and had got out her boats to take measures against infernal machines, firmly convinced that the skiff was a piece of retaliation on the part of the rebels, and, in response to his assertion that he was Lieut. Gushing, loudly assuring him that Lieut. Gushing was no longer in existence ; and it was still some time before he found himself on board refreshed, clothed and in his right mind, and on the way to the flag-ship, where, in honor of his; return, rockets were thrown up and all hands called to cheer ship, even before the success of his. expedition was announced. And for once valor had its due acknowledgment and reward."

William B. Gushing was born on Section 18, town of Delafield, Waukesha County, November 4, 1842. His father, Milton B. Gushing, was one of the earliest settlers of that town. Commander "Gushing served one year in the naval academy three years before the breaking-out of the war, in which he was one of the first to enlist. At the close of the war, he married Kate Forbes, of Fredonia, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., who, with two sweet children, survived his death, which occurred at the Insane Hospital, in Washington, December 17, 1874. At his death the Waukesha Freeman said : " Many old citizens who remember the ragged little fellow of twenty years ago, playing on the banks of the Bark River in the village of Delafield, and who afterwards learned with pride that the same ' Billy Gushing ' was performing some of the most glorious work of the war against secession, will be stricken with sorrow to learn of his untimely death."

The National Republican, of Washington, in its issue of Friday, December 18, 1874, said r "At half-past 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Commander William B. Gushing, one of the bravest officers who ever trod the deck of a vessel, breathed his last. This announcement will cast a shade of sorrow throughout the land, for where is the American who has not heard of the valiant deeds of him whose corpse is now lying at his late residence in the navy yard ? There was no officer who ever entered the navy whose record was brighter - not even that of Decatur - than that of the deceased hero." Some years before his death. Commander Gushing received large sums from the Government in reward of his valuable services, and his family has a competence. The disease that caused Commander Cushing's death was contracted while on duty in the Gulf of Mexico. It caused him to become insane, in which condition he died. On his person, after death, was found an autograph letter, in which the strong pen of the late Gideon Welles returned the fullest thanks for the wonderful services which the brave Waukesha boy had performed for his country.

Had no other man entered the war of the Rebellion from this county, Waukesha would still be honored through all time as the birth-place of William B. Gushing.

Scraps of War History. - In April, 1861, two ladies of wealth, standing and with families, offered their services at the recruiting oflfice as nurses as soon as the fighting began.

The "Home Guards," a company enrolled at Waukesha for home protection in case of emergency, was fully organized by May 1, and consisted of the older men of prominence and property. Malcolm Sellers was Captain.

The "Constitutional Guards," organized for home protection, was a company composed of men considered too old, or physically unable to fight except in case of emergency, on May 7, 1861, elected officers as follows: W. S. Hawkins, Captain; David Somer, First Lieutenant ; Martin Shafer, Second Lieutenant ; Leo Uhr, Sergeant ; John W. Lowry, Corporal. Gov. Randall refused, however, to commission these officers, because, he said, the company was unfit for war.

June 1, a young son of Mr. Curtis, of the Oconomowoc Free Press, enlisted, and the patriotic father, in the next issue of his paper, said : " It is tough, but we cheerfully resign him at the call of the nation. And more - whenever necessity shall seem to require it, we shall as cheerfully go ourself, wherever duty may point."

Winchel D. Bacon, of Waukesha, was appointed by the Governor as one to purchase clothing for the Wisconsin soldiers. His first purchase was in June, 1861, and consisted of soldiers' equipage valued at $200,000.

In June, 1861, Fred Ring was chosen Captain of the "Waukesha Zouaves," and was immediately commissioned to enroll a company " without expense to the State."

In November, the ladies of Ottawa formed a " Nightingale Society," to aid the soldiers. They were very successful in all their undertakings.

In December, 1861, Gov. A. W. Randall was offered the commission of Major General. He wrote in reply to President Lincoln : " Whenever you want a caucus managed, send for me ; but the military business would be better left in other hands, for this country is in peril, and her affairs are not to be trifled with." That characteristic letter is still on file at Washington.

In December, seven months after making their enthusiastic pledges, a large number of the subscribers to the volunteer fund to aid the families of soldiers refused to pay their assessments. This brought a storm of letters from the soldiers, who complained bitterly that, while they were manfully "living up to their enlistment oaths in the field, those who pledged aid to their families at home were backing out like cowards."

While on the way to the front, during the last of March, 1862, eleven of Col. W. A. Barstow's cavalry were killed in a railway accident near Chicago, and twice that number seriously wounded.

Joseph Doty, an editorial -writer for some time on the Waukesha Democrat, turned rebel and held a commission in the Confederate army. Three or four citizens of Waukesha County signed resoli^tions indorsing his course and requested their publication, but met a prompt refusal from both the Democratic and Republican editors.

R. L. Gove and H. F. Potter, of Col. Edward Daniels' regiment, edited a paper at Girardeau, Mo., called the Eagle, and made a good paper of it, too, during the spring of 1862.

In June, 1862, C. W. Bennett was commissioned Captain, to raise recruits. He opened an office at the court house in Waukesha about that time.

In August, 1862, John Hodgson offered $20 each to the first five men to enlist in Capt. Williams' company. He paid it, and, August 12, the company was full and ready to march.

F. B. Ward, the deaf printer of " Humbug City," near Waukesha, when asked by his third and last son if he should enlist, replied " Yes, yes, don't stay for me. I would go, too, if they would take me. I can care for myself; if not, it won't matter much." And his third son, less than eighteen years of age, signed the roll.

Mr. Curtis, of the Oconomowoc Free Press, who sent his son to the front early in the war, in August, 1862, enlisted himself, although age and physical disabilities nearly debarred him as a volunteer. He declared in his paper that when thje country was in peril, every man should be able-bodied, and he, therefore, had shouldered a musket.

Dr. C. A. Leuthstrom announced that he would attend free to the families of all soldiers who should enlist after August, 1862. He kept his word.

On Thursday evening, August 14, 1862, C. C. White announced that he should raise a company of volunteers, and at midnight the following night the required number for a company had signed the enlistment roll. This was quick work.

Michael Thompson, in August, 1862, offered to furnish firewood to the families of any Waukesha village men who might enlist, and George Babcock offered to board free during the war the family of one volunteer.

The companies commanded by Capts. Enos, Townsend, Stevens, Williams and Meyer, belonging to the Twenty-eighth or " Waukesha Regiment," left for Camp Randall during the second week of September, 1862.

The only vote in the Assembly against the measures to place Wisconsin on a war footing, at the breaking-out of the war, came from a Waukesha County member.

Capts. H. A. Meyer and M. G. Townsend were presented handsome swords and belts before leaving for the front, in October, by their friends in the county.

Cushman K. Davis, afterward (xovernor of Minnesota, Elihu Enos, Sidney A. Bean, Mr. Curtis, Irving M. Bean, C. C. White, C. B. Slawson, Edward Daniels, B. F. Cram and several others corresponded regularly for the Waukesha County papers, and some of them wrote also for the Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee papers.

In January, 1863, a large meeting was held at Genesee, to raise funds for soldiers' families. The result was satisfactory. The ladies of that town also had " Mite Societies," for the same purpose, securing considerable sums of money and large amounts of food and clothing.

After the passage of the " Conscription Act " by the State Legislature, the following were appointed, in May, 1863, to make enlistment rolls in the various towns : Waukesha, James Davis; Menomonee, Cyrus S. Davis; Merton, David S. Foote ; Lisbon, George Cairncross ; Oconomowoc, D. R. Thompson ; Summit, E. Baker; Delafield, Samuel Thompson; Pewaukee,

At the battle of Port Hudson, Col. Sidney A. Bean threw aside his sword and coat, and, seizing a musket, loaded and fired incessantly, until mortally wounded.

In December, 1863, Lieut. Slawson. for Waukesha ; L. Barker, for Brookfield ; E. Oleson, for Oconomowoc, and C. Helwig, for Vernon, opened recruiting oiBces to fill up the Twentyeighth Regiment.

In February, 1864, Brookfield, Merton and Menomonee voted to raise bounties for volunteers. Oconomowoc voted the bounty proposition down. Mukwonago, Waukesha, Genesee and Pewaukee made arrangements for bounties a few days later, and March 1, 1864, Mukwonago had her quota full for the call for 500,000 men, made February 1, 1864.

In April, 1864, Genesee paid a Milwaukee firm |4,000 for re- enlistments, and Milwaukee had the men credited to the Second Ward of that city. Genesee afterward got back $1,000 of this money.

Some of the bundles sent out by the Ladies' Aid Society were curiously and touchingly marked. On a bundle containing bandages was written : " This is a poor gift, but it is all I had ; I have given my husband and my boy, and wish I had more to give, but I have not."

For several weeks after April 1, 1864, Irving M. Bean acted as Provost Marshal of this district, Mr. Tillapaugh having been deposed for crookedness.

In May, 1864, meetings were held for the purpose of raising 100-day men. Excitement again ran high, as it was thought the war was nearly at an end.

August 1, 1864, Mukwonago raised $2,600 to free the town from a draft consequent upon Lincoln's call of July 18, for 500,000 men for one year.

During the latter half of the Rebellion, the pay of soldiers was as follows : Sergeantmajors, $26 ; quartermaster and commissary sergeants of cavalry, artillery and infantry, $20; sergeants of ordnance, sappers and miners, and pontoniers, $34 ; corporals of ordnance, sappers and miners, pontoniers, $20 ; privates of engineers and ordnance of the first class, $18 ; and of the second class, $16 ; corporals of cavalry, artillery and infantry, $18 ; chief buglers of cavalry, $23 ; buglers, $16; farriers and blacksmiths of cavalry and artillery, $18 ; privates of cavalry, artillery and infantry, $16 ; principal musicians of artillery and infantry, $22 ; leaders of brigade and regimental bands, $75 ; musicians, $16 ; hospital stewards of the first class, $33 ; hospital stewards of the second class, $25 ; hospital stewards of the third class, $28.

The first demonstration in Waukesha County of those who sympathized with the rebellion was at a public meeting held in Mukwonago, March 11, 1863, at which " secesh " speeches were made, and the name of every Union officer and soldier was reviled in the most shameful manner. Three days later, on March 14, a larger public meeting to denounce " the butcher Lincoln" was held in Robinson's Hall at Waukesha. William S. Hawkins was admitted and took opportunity to deliver such a speech for the Union as broke up the meeting. A few days later, a similar meeting was held in Merton, but it re-acted, resulting in the formation of a Union Club, which caused Confederate sympathizers to thereafter keep safely hidden.

The women did not join in these demonstrations against the Union. The wives of Confederate sympathizers were found at Union meetings, and were working as members of the " Soldiers' Aid Societies," while their husbands were condemning the war.

Late in April, 1863, the sympathizers with Jefferson Davis had another public meeting, and invited Alexander F. Pratt to be present and to make a speech. He did so, and delivered such a speech for the Union as those present had not heard for many a day. Although impromptu, it was a fine effort, and sent dismay into the ranks of those who had gathered to give aid and comfort to the cause espoused by Jefferson Davis.

The greatest demonstrations in favor of Jefferson Davis were made at Oconomowoc, where numerous citizens wore copper cents for buttons, and the raid on the house of one Union man was, for a time, really dangerous.