Commander Will Cushing : daredevil hero of the Civil War

Summary: 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.

Record details

ISBN: 0393240894 (hbk.)
ISBN: 9780393240894 (hbk.)
Physical Description: 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
print
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-288) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	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.
Language Note:	Text in English.