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Commander Will Cushing : daredevil hero of the Civil War / Jamie Malanowski.

Van Pelt Library E467.1.C98 M33 2014
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Malanowski, Jamie, author.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Cushing, William Barker, 1842-1874.
Cushing, William Barker.
United States. Navy.
Ship captains--United States--Biography.
Ship captains.
History.
United States.
United States. Navy--Officers--Biography.
Albemarle (Confederate ironclad).
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Commando operations.
Armed Forces--Officers.
Commando troops.
Genre:
Biographies.
History.
Physical Description:
304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition:
First edition.
Place of Publication:
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.
Summary:
A thrilling narrative biography of William Barker Cushing, the Civil War's most celebrated naval hero.
October 1864. The fearsome Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle had taken control of the Roanoke River and threatening the Union blockade. 21-year-old navy lieutenant William Barker Cushing hatched a daring plan: to attack the warship with a few dozen men in two small wooden boats. What followed, including Cushing's harrowing two-day escape downriver from vengeful Rebel posses, is one of the most dramatic individual exploits in American military history. Tossed out of the Naval Academy for "buffoonery," Cushing proved himself a prodigy in warfare. Given command of a small union ship, he performed daring, near-suicidal raids. With higher commands and larger ships, his exploits grow bolder, culminating in the sinking of the Albemarle. This thrilling narrative biography, steeped in the tactics, weaponry, and battle techniques of the Union Navy, brings to life a compelling yet flawed figure. 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.--From publisher description.
Contents:
Terrible excitement
Plague and pride
A talent for buffoonery
Not recommended
Neither effective nor subordinate
His exuberant spirit
The Gosport debacle
Delaware farmer
Baptisms of fire
Twenty-eight shells a minute
Original and speculative
Transformations
The Virginia
The Monitor
Rising
Reenter Flusser
Adventures of the Ellis
Pilot hunting
Alonzo at Antietam
In old Virginia
At Gettysburg
Alonzo's glory
Grieving
The essence of impudence
Marsh grass and cattails
High time we went
Zigzag
Letters from Welles
The coming
Rampage
Too strong
Proceed to New York
No one else
In case of failure
Dead ahead
Now
Dead gone sunk
Seldom equaled, never excelled
Back in action
Secret weapon
Sitting duck
Return to Fort Fisher
Slaughter at the northeast bastion
Endgames
Victory
On the west coast
Love and duty
Love letters
In the orient
Howard
The world stage
The Virginius
The butcher
Face-off
At rest.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780393240894
0393240894
OCLC:
881280203

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