The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-17
CUSHING'S DARING.
How He Blew Up the Rebel Ram ale
beInarle at Night.


be1narle at Night.
On the night of October II. 1864.
Cushing slipped away from the block
aiding fleet, and steamed up the river
toward the wharf, dozen miles dis
tant, where the great ram lay. The
confederates were watchful to guard
against surprise, for they feared lest
their foes should try to destroy the
ram before she got a chance to come
down and attack them again in the
Sound. She lay under the guns OF
fort, with a regiment of troops ready at
a moments notice to turn out and de-
fend her. Her own guns were kept al
ways clear for action, and she was pro-
tected by great boom of logs thrown
out roundabout, of which last defence
the federals knew nothing. Cushing
went upstream with the utmost eau
ton, and by good luck, passed, unno-
ticed, a confederate lookout below the
ram.
About midnight he made his assault.
Steaming quietly on through the black
water, and feeling his way cautiously
toward where he knew the town to be,
he finally made out the loom of the
A1bemarle through the night, and at
once drove at her. He was almost upon
her before he was discovered; then the
crew and the soldiers on the wharf
opened fire, and at the same moment he
was brought to by the boom, the exist
ence of which he had not known. The
rif1e-balls were singing about him as
he stood erect guiding his launch, and
he heard the hustle of the men aboard
%171p !, - I,r1ev m q
as they were got ready. Backing off,
he again went all steam ahead, and
actually surged over the slippery log
of the boom.
Meanwhile on the deck of the Abe
marie the sailors were running to quar-
ters, and the soldiers were swarming
down to aid in her defense. And the
droning bullets came always thicker
through the dark night. Cushing still
stood upright in his little craft, guiding
and controlling her by voice and signal,
while in his hands he kept the ropes
which led to the torpedo. AS the boat
slid over the boom, he brought the tor
pedo full against the somber side of tho
huge ram, and instantly exploded 1t, al
most at the same time that the pivot
gun of the ram, loaded with grape, was
fired point blank at him, not ten yards
off
At once the ram settled, the launch
sinking at the same moment, while
Cushing and his men swan for their
lives. Most of them sank or were cap
tured; but Cushing reached midstream-
Hearing something splashing in the
darkness, he swan toward it, and found
that it was one of his crew. He went
to his rescue, and they kept together
for some time, but the sailors strength
gave out, and he finally sank. In the
pitch darkness Cushing could form no
idea where he was; and when, chilled
through, and too exhausted to rise to
his feet, he finally reached shore, shortly
before dawn. he found that he had
sWum back, and landed but few hun
dred feet below the sunken ram. All
that day he remained within easy
musket shot of where his foes were
swarming about the fort and the great
drowned ironcIad. He hardly dared
move, and until the afternoon he lay
without food and without protection
from the heat or insects. Then he
managed to slip unobserved into a
dense swamp, and began to make his
way toward the fleet. Toward evening
he came out on a small stream near a
camp of confederate soldiers. They
had moored to the bank a small skif,
and with equal stealth and daring he
managed to steal this, and began to
paddle downstream. Hour after hour
he padded on through the fading light,
and then through the darkness AT
| Loot utterly worn out he found the
snuadron and was picked up-"Hero
Tales from American History" by
| Theodore Roosevelt.