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Description/History:
Ejected in 1861 from the U. S. Naval Academy
because of poor grades, by the end of the Civil War
Cushing became one the North’s most famous naval officers.
His most daring act took place during Fall 1864 when he,
and a small crew of naval officers and sailors departed on a
near suicide mission to sink the Confederate ironclad
CSS Albemarle. The mission was a success, and although most
of the men were captured, Cushing escaped thereby becoming
a national hero. After the war he remained in the navy,
but unfortunately died in 1874 of “acute mania” at Washington’s
hospital for the insane.
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