USS Plymouth (1844)

Transcription

i thought tonight uh... barber dot talked about what on my presentation might be and we finally decided that uh... uh... i should talk one william barker cushing many of you will know that he was off uh... daring union made more command uh... back in nineteen fifty seven there was a book published called lincoln's commander about william barker cushing who is most famous for destroying the confederate on cl and albemarle on the road oak river at plymouth in late october of nineteen sixty four uh... so uh... with most of the familiar with that episode uh... which was silky uh... in this uh... area of the state during the civil war that i thought i would toll uh... about william barker cushing what led up to that fateful moment that made him in the middle at least an international hero so uh... will start or one february twenty-ninth eighteen sixty four about nine months before uh... that fate for trek up the roanoke va river to collateral yall ball at the mouth of the cape fear river and you know that the cape fear river is this for in the southeastern corner of our state history tortillas in the northeastern corner state and i'm noah because i just drove two hundred and fifty miles to get up here today uh... it's a long way in eighteen sixty-four uh... this young man made it his mission to try and kidnap a confederate general whose name was louis a bear eighteen b e r t who commanded the defense is at the mouth of the cape fear river william barker cushing was uh... commander of a block e deanship called the monticello now to make a raid behind enemy lines would take alter recession from his commanding officer so crucial with over to see are james madison frailey who was on board a nother shep and told him what he wanted to do we plan to do and our commander frailey said i can authorize that if you're succeed will both look good but if you fail how i'm going to be the one who's going to pay for it ne i do not grant you permission cushing's model was don't ask for permission just ask for forgiveness of the done or and so on february the twenty ninth with a hand-picked crew volunteers uh... cushing would rolled from his ships post to all for now for the river uh... across the bar at the mouth right here and his destination was the town of smithville now southport you see that and so in the dead of night with mum poured orders this crew uh... with cushing at the lead uh... went across the harbor their destination was four johnston and general a bears headquarters about midnight they landed at the town aunt most people of course at that point or sleep in bed including confederate soldiers uh... in their barracks uh... and upon landing cushing learn from a couple of african-american young men where general a bears personal or and they've got to get into the house and cushing sneaked into the house already discovered that general and there was not there as it turns out he had gone to wilmington twenty six miles apart river in the day and would not return until the following day but in the commotion he managed to capture general any bears chief engineer captain patrick challenge any cushing said have realized where i was in what i was doing enough all the better part of our was to get out of there were a lot while i still could and so he is not with back to issue that's and his men started back across the harbor but another confederate officer in the house had discovered them and set off the alarm and cushion later wrote that the confederate soldiers like the old man who's looking for is classes that are on top of his head but he still can't find them they could not find us and we escaped back across the board and the next morning octroi over my captive uh... commodore fop frailey who was the artist that i've done what i've done but i had succeeded not the end of the story now patrick kelly had been captured literally in his pajamas and uh... so cushing and i love this about cushing cushion decided to send a short uh... bolander flag troops to retrieve the belongings of his captives and so the boat landed literally at the mouth of the river in a place called four castle uh... the confederate commander before his name was colonel thomas joan stormed out of the beach to find out what these yankees wanted with him and out of the boat stepped into us dept parkinson john jones i don't think there was any connection uh... and uh... instant jones said what we got your board last nite and we got him in his pajamas and he'd like to give his personal belongings would you send over to the town for his toothbrush in his socks because he's going to be up in a prisoner of war to happen the next few days pickle jones the senate career over to the town to get captain kelly's personal belongings and as he was gone you can imagine the moment the tension between the two antagonistic and they're walking up and down the beach kind of looking at each other and finally the confederate officer turned to his union followed and said darn splendid affair last night sarraj guard splendid affair he's giving credit to uh... the yankees for pulling this thing off and quality of the career returns with captain kelly's personal belongings and jones gets into the boat to return to the monticello always said up hope all the way i have a card that uh... captain cushion would like for you to give to general any bear and the cardinal red muddier general i regret that you were not at home when i called last evening sincerely yours dot could be cushioned carl jones was just absolutely furious he said he will never ever calls this morning again you would never get away with anything like this again bentsen's returned pot to the monticello what that was cushion that's the kind of stuff that he pulled off he was just a daring intrepid union naval officer uh... who made a name for himself and what were called cutting out expeditions during the civil war uh... and in doing so struck fear in the hearts of his antagonistic uh... but also made a big name for himself in the united states navy in fact no wars and this young man was better known in the north than any other union naval officer with exceptional and won't be the fair who you were no captured new orleans making sixty two and and the torpedoes full steam ahead would capture mobile bay in nineteen sixty four and this young man uh... was a household name though largely forgotten to die because bobby nineteen twenties uh... americans turned to the other not military heroes so much uh... as we always had awarded our military heroes with hot political offices the presidency and so forth but bother eighteen nineteen twenties return our culture changes and we start celebrating sports people and movie stars and and that's where we are today uh... but uh... until the nineteen twenties this god's exports were well-known fact even today they still study him at united states military academy where he attended until eighteen sixty one board in wisconsin in the front tear nineteen forty two his father died as a very young man and his mother whose name was mary uh... barker uh... smith crucially uh... often wondered if i called her mall barker caught the ears of photograph for your later years gentle orange family uh... and she moved from the frontier of wisconsin back differed only in new york which is about an hour south of buffalo right horn lake erie they had strong family ties there and a single mother thought this was the best place to raise for uh... her lord brood of children art including up four sons aunt uh... milton junior uh... how word bass cushing who would be killed by a patchy indians eighteen seventy one out in arizona uh... alonso cushing and those of you have studied the civil war warno alonso cushion who was awarded just two years ago the posthumously awarded the medal of honor bought for his uh... service with the forty nine states artillery at gettysburg where he was killed or july third just as louis harvest its troops are going over the stonewall you've ever watched the ted turner movie gettysburg he fires at last uh... parent rifle with canister as the confederates were going over the how one or more to get his bird and was mortally wounded there and again two years ago was just awarded the medal of honor uh... his younger brother and the youngest of the boys was william barker commission who grew up fatherless undisciplined rambunctious uh... but a natural born leader uh... he was the leader of his neighborhood gang he could run faster and climb higher and fight harder being either on the boards in the neighborhood uh... but became a propos problem there were disciplinary problems so the family thought that the thing to do is to send them to an academy a service academy just older brother long had gone the year before gymnastics military academy arkin eighteen fifty seven the family dot through his mother's connections she was a cousin to the admiral joseph smith part dot cushing an appointment to the nine states naval academy in annapolis maryland so he's class of eighteen sixty one any starting the academy at the age of fourteen years and pierce's forced photograph is age on midshipmen and italian yes he's fourteen years old so ostensibly he's going to graduate wins only eighteen years old from the united states naval academy well part cushing uh... if the family thought that sending him to a service academy would straighten out they were sorely disappointed this guy like more the mayors in just about any cadet up to that point com bottoming this guy out we would say that he was a party boy in those days they caught it skylark he was not it's not a good student he did not study hard he was all over always pulling pranks and stupid stuff like putting a bucket on the top of the door of the classroom so that when the professor walks in your get dealt with a bunch of war that kind of stuff uh... he became such a problem that the academy was looking for a way to get rid of it but he had good political connections after all his mother's cousin wasn't administers maybe and protected but finally walked at sixty-one uh... he had gone to washington d_c_ near bob this is an act uh... he stayed longer than his passing out into so the accused in the a law and i kick them out of the academy on march twenty third nineteen sixty one are claiming that he was deficient in spanish haha so they can recheck set out in eighteen sixty one literally just weeks before the civil war began and uh... president lincoln needed good sailors cushing was thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated by the shame that he brought on himself or his family his beloved family name and of course the academy and so he got an appointment to see the secretary of the navy gillian welch and made such an impression with the secretary that the secretary appointed him a midshipman which was just as lower rank in the note mistakes made in japan because she had told him sor if you will give me this opportunity op all issues now to make a name for myself for the navy for our country or are will dot try and he lived up to his word as well as anyone could think of force company united states navy and that was remark repression uh... he was everywhere uh... he served one are blockaded the of the carolinas uh... he was at the attacks in four traversing clark in august of eighteen sixty one uh... actually uh... was involved in these cutting out expeditions in the southeastern virginia lawman and some on river he served on the block a dolphin charleston south carolina he made such an an impression on his commanders that within one year enchilada eighteen sixty two they art made him in lieutenant page or two grades of like four that appointment any at the age of nineteen was the youngest lieutenant ever in the united states navy early on he was already in pressing his haha his naval superiors and making a name for himself uh... again uh... a he was uh... mostly in the northeastern corner of uh... our stay in virginia uh... few witnessed he was on board the parts of the yacht congress during the battle uh... between the monitoring the merrimack in march of nineteen sixty two the first duel between aren't titans i mean he was absolutely everywhere he was most known for his service with the monticello that he took command of in eighteen sixty three having made uh... raids out the new river to capture the town of jacksonville in november of eighteen sixty two uh... he was always looking for a blockade runners they were bringing in supplies stuff for the confederacy trying to hijack blockade runners dorfner short to destroy salt works uh... one of the uh... rage that he made not oldest of eighteen sixty three was at new talks a little it near wilmington but we found miles north of wilmington where he destroyed a new york registered blockade runner call the alexander cooper now we know a lot about the english involvement in the blockade running trade we know will hold lot less about the smuggling trade between the northern states and the south during the war lead exist because there were people businessman who were patriots to profit and not to a particular calls because she was lipid when he discovered they've esol trading through the blockade uh... that came from his own state answering for the alexander cooper to the waterline and of course in doing so he keeps receiving accolades from his superiors from are the rear admiral of the north atlanta blockade exporters and phillips lee uh... he will receive science from united states congress which was the highest uh... honor you can receive is a naval officer until nineteen sixty naval officers could not receive the medal of honor until nineteen sixty and so when you got the banks of the u_s_ congress that was about as good as it yeah so uh... this is what he did uh... on the blockaded uh... and which aim well-known on any love that and they did nothing else this guy and he go uh... and and these kinds of things helped feed his ego heal old saying his name in print he always sought out reporters in media types to give him details of his latest weijin exports behind enemy lines uh... that's what he was all about now as for the album warfare it started uh... in may have eighteen sixty four this is the lesser-known part of the story on may the sixth of that year the confederate ironclad rollie which was originally class on plant like the virginia performer mary magnitude battle with the monitor the about two years before the c_s_o_ strongly seen here made in wilmington uh... women out home looks to block a tourist off of the cape fear river to try and break the blockade so that ships commerce vessels that were trying to get in in out of the harbor could do it less threatening wilmington bob bennett was by far the south's most important seaport uh... eighty percent uh... that uh... blockade runner seven eighty percent success rate at wilmington so there was lots of money to be made the goods and equipment and provisions that these blockade runners brought in mostly from great britain uh... help the confederacy sustain its war effort uh... the lifeline of supplies between wilmington and petersburg in richmond with wide open rooted in wilton railroad right off the coastal plain of our state robert e lee said in eighteen sixty fourth will weaken falls i cannot maintain ma army so the message was clear the bus sixty four the survival of the army of for jenny northern virginia and lost the confederacy depended upon the survival of wilmington north carolina has a blockade running seaport and to help break the blockade the raleigh om the night of may to six without into the ocean uh... the uh... union gunboats were not expecting her uh... this was an abu looking vessel in the middle of the night look like a big giant board especially approach to ships and she started the fire only union vessels they fired back but of course there shots is balanced often for on case names and so they scattered in the darkness one of only three times during the civil war that the union naval blockade of the southwest temporarily at least two tons of charleston went on in wilmington but next morning sun comes up union naval vessels regain their uh... composure uh... reorganized and going into trial fight to see s_s_ rollie with the rollie was in no longer and moved for finding should running low on fuel so she turned around and went back into the cape fear river but as she did so uh... she ran aground archie had gone out through the other inlet of of the harbor new england out into this area and she goes back into the inlet an issue makes this turn right here at the end of u_n_ origami almost golden federal point southerners renamed its a confederate war during the war she grounded on harshal right there at the mouth of the river all and became a wreck when the time payroll the waiter peron case makes literally brokerage oscar shield and the confederates managed to salvage her engines and their guns but the rolly was a total rec she still there to this day cushing was not among the union blockade as they were attacked it new in the packet was up at beaufort recalling in rewarding the monticello what would he cry herb it where you favor had struck his comrades at the mouth of the date zero ever he would have none of it uh... took a ship back down to the map of the cape fear river uh... and are determined to fund the raleigh and hijacked it or destroy it and so this time with permission because now he's got such a big navy can basically do anything he wants to do it this is long before there was such a thing as a navy seal but this is where begins uh... cushing we save permission to go for the cape fear river and try to find the rollin he spent two-and-a-half days all indicate fear river again taking a hand-picked crew of sailors uh... going of course the bore are at nighttime when the government workers uh... having out along the banks to cape fear river and bracingly hot kidnapping people as they came by taking a mail courier in hunters and fishermen and ladies who were ordered forced back going to see their sweetheart supports so personally hectic the group of captives were then problem will be admitted and one of his men went to a local grocery store dressed up as a confederate soldier borrowing the uniform of the courier that they had kidnapped and going into the store and get milk and eggs and blackberries on whatever you got uh... and bringing them back to the man uh... well finally uh... he learned that the raleigh uh... had already saw he finally got that intel and so we decided to leave the cape fear river but in doing so he posted in milan on able wage that reminded colonel jones afford castle of his promise that he would never come back onto the river and the know basically said are back haha and managed to escape aren't the confederates belden insurance companies still managed to escape from the really was kind of a golden boy well out what happened was of course he had failed in his mission uh... hijackers for the raleigh he failed and most of his missions but it was the effort uh... and the publicity that bought in nine states navy that the navy departments so uh... in jordan and admired about christian so now he can basically do anything he wants to do i love this photograph of him takin in eighteen sixty four uh... and with that chalti pose some you can tell he was he was arrogant he was cokie all but he can back it up to if you like your foot in the background you can see at the time his commanding officer whose name was admiral david dickson poor at this point cushing is a lieutenant commander and here is a much higher ranking officer in the background hands on hit saint that should be out there not russian uh... but that so much the medial often he was darling united states may be the ladies absolutely loved him he got tossed a request for photographs of the autographs and speaking engagements and he absolutely loved all of that it was his failure to capture or destroy the wrongly that really heightened his spot his senses about these confederate iron-clad and in july the uh... uh... the commander of the north atlantic like a squatter s phillips lease etc permission for him uh... back in april uh... a confederate iron-clad called the albemarle uh... literally built in a corn field uh... up the road oak river uh... has helped confederate forces recapture of the town of plymouth on robert frederick hoax army supported by the album on the road up river was able to capture recapture our planet and dont and held it ever since uh... controls the album wallkill course to be dealt with then it was unlikely that federal forces could retake the town and of course the roanoke and indeed all the albemarle sound was still seen as a back door to richmond that's on my house or way they were still going to be the uh... able to use the river systems in northeastern or johanna to make uh... a concerted effort into southeastern virginia in fact that never happened it should've happened two years earlier and they did not take advantage of it but that's another story for another day uh... but are they had lost one list they had lost several vessels in the fight uh... in april sixty four and so lee called cushing to his headquarters and offered him this popper tuna to go after the album all and of course to she said absolutely outraged and lay probably would have offered to no other officer but cliche so uh... there it is his quarry uh... bother yaar summer the late summer uh... cushing has already made arrangements to have uh... true launches that were made in schenectady new york brought down the hudson river to new york the in new york naval yard where they would be outfitted uh... with a steam engine uh... and export torpedo forearm attacked that he had been concocting in his head about how he was going to do this uh... no confederate vessel had ever been destroyed by union torpedoed uh... did a number of union vessels to stored by confederate or pianos but not the other way around but in this case this poor piano would have to be hand deployed so cushing comes up with this brazen plan uh... are bringing the launchers down from new york he would steam them through what basically it's the day the intercostal waterway all the way down the path to are selfish to virginia and then down through the uh... canal part too to the mouth of the albemarle sound uh... and then win the conditions were ripe would go up the wrong riverview eight miles from the mouth of the river to the town and tried to destroy the album all other officers' union naval officers had made the trek up the river to reconnoiter or scout out confederate forces at plymouth and the location of the album all so uh... a lot of the legwork have already been done for cushing in terms of the local intel and he would use this tues advantage out there would be one abortive attempt to get up the uh... roanoke uh... on the night of the twenty six uh... the weather was so bad that they actually turn back all plus the disdain engines for the launch is made way too much noise so the next day they played built covering for the uh... the launches because they know demands the other on the program and it's only two hundred towards wanted really that most of the way up and they're gonna be confederate symbols on both sides river so you need uh... the cover of darkness preferably really bad weather and you need for those steam engines to make his little noise as possible the next like even those cold and rainy thing made another attempt and off cushing with about fourteen million in his launch were true uh... and gate uh... with thirteen other sailors and i'll tell you now that we ask for volunteers of one of those moments where everyone step toward a volunteer and he could only take about uh... twenty five guys and uh... but he told them that up front he said this is a suicide mission chances are we're not coming back but if we succeed there will be glory in there will be promotion but don't count now who will volunteer and everyone step four he said well i can only tell you when you when you do so he had about twenty five guys with mahal total uh... thirteen on the gate fourteen in the uh... uh... in his launch and he told the gate all the way up the run up river eight miles and it was about two thirty before they approach within about a mile of the town and there was a vessel called the south field which is done then lol sternberg earlier flight uh... and cushion opposite room that there would be a gordo on board the south field uh... looking for a chance to get up the river to destroy the overall the confederate edited into hotel uh... they were all the watch for us so when we come up the river pocket right at the uh... of the album all well uh... they were able to pass within twenty orbs of the south field confederates were on board the vessel uh... they passed by undetected the gap for about the river and of course in the darkness is now about three o'clock in the morning he can't see this mirror ke shape uh... it must be the album or of course as he got closer and closer he could see it in his plan was to hijacked he was going to go ashore an attack it from the land side any brotha along with him they union flag so that we hijacked it he could raise a flag up and staying the album all all the way down to the mouth of the river and turn it over to the uh... blocking force in album also uh... but as he approached uh... the uh... the album all would get in a way were not slumbering confederate soldiers uh... awakened by the noise he was configured oclc adult common coming and started barking which is what awal the confederate soldiers uh... they could hear the ct of the steam engine litter box or a social war then they could see cushion coming and immediately opened fire on it uh... with uh... with their small bags uh... rifle muskie's uh... revolvers and so forth uh... cushing up of course he realized what uh... everything at stake there was no turning back at this point he told his men remember this is a suicide mission so we approached the uh... the album all determined to destroy it but just as he got closer to recognize that there was a and a print or a boom of logs that have been put out into the river just in case there was an attempt to sabotage the vessel and discussion approach to realize you know what contact he had attack in the way i want to know when we have to do is so cool all the way back around and ship that log boom that paper on heroin and hollow that has been in the river long enough to curb the logs will be slimy and that if i hear that fast enough that the war to go over the top of the slimy logs and end of the inside between the buddha and the ship then i can deploy in my uh... torpedo not keep in mind that they are bom bom clicking all around him uh... there sports bar and uh... and cushing's making all these decisions you know uh... under heavy fire and he goes around goes forty plans to do circles back around and that he hits that lol boom head on and sure enough is launched as exactly where you plan to do a few nor to release the gate got rid of those guys you go back down and secure the south field so that we come back bob we won't have the problems because of course all the firing is going to alert the confederates on board the south field that something is amiss at the plant pot so now his launch just or on the top of the log apron uh... the prowled the boat just kind of depresses a little bit and of course there sailors on board the album wall there are soldiers that are now allowing the banks and cushing's mirror eliminated by the bonfires and they're just shooting at because she said the entire back part of my coat was torn away one of my heels in my shoes it or away he said my god forgive shot and wounded left and right he kept his cool he kept his wits about him and uh... once the was cut off that long uh... balloon he took that hand-held uh... toward the road and they had practice for weeks how they're going to do this and keep push that thing up underneath the vocals now of the vessel and released the torpedo so that's been floated up underneath the vessel fenced-in winded longest halt uh... he poured it uh... basically on detonating vehicle pia simultaneously with the explosion of a savage book rifle orange or the album all and he could hear the dow's been sasha living quarters kornblum ring that big gestion to five volume any calculated i've got about twenty seconds bike i've got about fifteen seconds that's going to happen first berries are going to blow me apart first or i'm going to blow them up and apparently the explosions or simultaneous and he said the photo of war created by the explosion of the torpedo which blew the whole in the bath in the hall of the art album all he said you could drop of black and through it i mean it's huge and that was something he's with the detonation onboard the vessel of that book rifle he said all of that commotion each a us and the war he said just completely flattened mulch and he said during a mock and senator nunn and i said every man for himself jab wide you can and he's because it does or schorr were calling for his surrender surrender releases are far because she said twice are refusing no i'm not surrender i'm gonna bloated uh... and denims everyman from self uh... he jumped overboard uh... most of his men were killed wounded or captured he had one other man managed to obfuscate and one man a cushy trying to save in the middle of the river because of course you would use for way finish or lies you possibly can so they dived into the river swim out in the middle of the river and then let the current take them as far down rivers that possibly could and one young man to she tried to hold on to you get into short recesses cold war's freezing cold we are actually exhaust were mentally physically exhausted from the mission he said could not hold onto this guy any lost in eyesight beneath the waves of the uh... the river and disappeared christiano hammer managed to make it down river and then too short but he said once i reach the shore i was so exhausted literally could not call myself into hiding place and he said i i just collapsed right there on the edge of the river and next morning i was awake and boxing to federal officers who were looking for an walking all the riverfront talking about the album on and he said i got into some reads i hit away uh... a black man came along a little bit later and said can you go wander into plymouth and find out about the the albemarle he said sure enough the black man came back a little bit later said he got him and he got it so i did dot twenty dollar gold piece titled pot he had succeeded in this nation now he's got to get back to the blocking force at the mouth of the river it's up from his point about sixty warm-ups so it starts to walk he discovers uh... adi uh... reversal and steals it and rose the rose to the way down the road oak river you know like this just completely exhausted and what kept him going heap literally put himself into a trance and his uh... his word for a call when you're in a transfer you come up with a word his mantra his mantra was cushing crushing he chanted his phone name that was his mantra to get back to the spot to the point eighty four's basics edit p six eight uh... his commanding officer i'd said this was the most daring mission of the civil war uh... he would receive the facts of the u_s_ congress the fifth one of the wards deadly he would receive the personal thanks to the president of states of america and he would become an international here a not south of course uh... in the north and overseas uh... he was uh... he was the man and with the loss of the album all your forces were indeed uh... able to recapture plymouth and regain control of northeastern north carolina uh... he was so popular at that point that uh... there was a series five down like six photographs take in a single city uh... it just being one of them he was promoted lieutenant commander his highest rank in the civil war at least and there are a series of photographs taken of him uh... and they became executive officer on board the u_s_s_ malvern are commanded by new commander of the north atlanta blockage watered david dickson porter and here is cushing over here belong haircut behind his ears looking like a hippie from the nineteen sixties but just the darling united states navy at that point uh... i i'll just tell you that he he ends up uh... at the end of the war continuing to do that kind of service with the navy he was at both four fisher tax which were the largest naval bombardments of the civil war the largest amphibious operations in american military history to be a world war two and cushing was right there in sick of the fighting uh... again to sort of adding to his legend uh... at morse and uh... he had a very difficult time adjusting to the peace time navy as you can imagine he had built up this tremendous reputation uh... he had uh... adi gain great skills fighting argued star anonymity and his temperament and personality was just not suited the peace time lately uh... he served in the asia added squandering the pacific squandering he served in various naval nordstrom boston or the new york north beach with the washington new york uh... but he had a very difficult time i'm making that transition and i want to look very carefully in the cause of this young man this photograph taken about eighteen seventy and look how he has changed since the war time that's sweetness uh... is gone and there is intense uh... edge to cushing nineteen seventy fact his brother naval officer said that the war changed became much more aggressive at times he could be very difficult uh... even uh... very aggressive and uh... they work sure what was going to happen to him all why his personality changed as much as it did are contemporary in eighteen seventy by chapter louise uh... forbes beautiful young lady and they had two daughters uh... both of whom were very young wind cushing died by the fall of eighteen seventy four he was demonstrating such weird symptoms terrible terrible headaches uh... very aggressive even abusive personality and finally in early december they put him into the washington insane asylum are not because they thought that he was insane he was having some issues but that was the closest hospital to the washington navy yard so uh... historians who know about his last days uh... believing he'd uh... dot of his disease brain pockets death certificate said that he died of acute mania whatever that meant and uh... i thought the longest time that uh... he probably died of the long-range effects of tuberculosis scheduled his father had killed to of his siblings ran rampant through the family and if used survivor warm enough you can develop cultural bernie and i thought that's probably what killed him but in their allah just to hurt me get this presentation year or so ago said you know there's not a possibility that the trauma the brain trauma created by that attack on the album wall with a simultaneous explosion of the brookline for closely said it was within fifteen feet of me and the poor peter in exactly the same time she said that you know that just might have called some you know it's very serious neurological problems for him so we don't know what we do know however is that uh... he was buried at bluff point that the united states naval academy in annapolis maryland very school that thirteen years earlier hit kicked in helped they buried him with honors along the grounds of the naval academy you go there to the state and there's a huge monument reason because she an audit on the other side it says album oxy s_s_i_ lovable so uh... and he was known as a a album all cushing for much of his life but his daughter's grew up half fatherless as he did they never married nor did robert e_ lease daughters who was gonna match steady uh... and uh... so his wife katherine uh... beautiful young lady babu of widowed at of the region unit never remarried and the lightly because she she did all that she could and then v uh... daughters spent the rest of their life uh... promoting uh... their father and his great service to united states thought maybe and that's what kept his his memory uh... a lot for his long-time as they did but now he was a great heroes uh... this is a grand army the republic uh... unit uh... that clearly this is from new york clearly if you look carefully you can see a portrait i'd know what your words portrait is there's really more cushion so uh... this is a g_a_o_ or post that would have been named for william barker cushion there were have been five nine states navy vessels name for tuition including uh... oracle corp ito bumps in the late nineteenth century this one being the second u_s_s_ cushing there have been to uh... destroyer safer cushion the last word just decommissioned about six years ago so the navy continues to honor and the navy uh... the naval academy continues don around and study his exploits uh... during uh... the war and five again he emerges from the war better known that you know what it says five apple fared making a great name for it the masters navy great uh... service for the country and of course cop a great name for himself so that was william barclay certian uh... howell in this presentation by just very briefly telling you that in that late june uh... we or going to hold a symposium in wilmington uh... to commemorate the sinking of the blockade runner modern grease you heard me earlier mentioned the importance of a blockade running trade to the confederate uh... war effort caught at least fifty percent of everything the confederacy conserve used whatever came in through the union able blockade and uh... most important seaport was wilmington nineteen sixty three they're not personally believe that body uh... latter part of eighteen sixty four will return was the most important city in the confederacy virginians lord you meet till the sun goes down on this one but you can't move the political capital from richmond to dan four greensboro charlotte or any other city even robert e lee said wilmington so important that i cannot maintain my army if it falls one of these ships that uh... ran aground in trying to clear the harbor was a british steamer called the moderates salvaged in eighteen sixty two and then we discovered exactly a hundred years later after an easter storm and then the united states navy and the state archives uh... together uh... excavated the vessel funding probably is much of not more supplies still or board that vessel as their war in eighteen sixty-three and what it did was is launched our country's first go to war archaeology program that still headquartered at fort fisher the north carolina underworld archaeology branch force one of the country so we've got to sink in the vessel exactly robert fifty years ago and then fifty years ago the launching of our country's first on the world archaeology program so we're going to commemorate those spot activities uh... with a symposium on june the twenty six at u_n_c_ w we've got some great speakers coming in the noted authorities on the block you doing trade all one the blockade antoine the modern greece and i've left over here some flyers are for you if you were interested i'll tell you signed up quickly because we've got space at the university that will accommodate only about a hundred twenty-five people into his filling up fast so if you're interested uh... please stop please uh... register as soon as you can the idea is that not overtly we're going to commemorate uh... the trade and shep uh... we have just received authorization to erect a uh... north carolina highway historical marker has just been approved and the fact that i'm on the committee has absolutely nothing to do with it uh... but the other idea is to raise enough funds to help conserve the eleven thousand plus artifacts that we still have that need conservation these being some of them everything from military equipment for hardware to medical equipment so forth so uh... i hope you lost your chin and i do appreciate your inviting me and more bumps or it took me so long to come up here