squadron of
the United States navy, mainly blockading cruisers. It was during
these three years of occupation that Lieut. W. B. Cushing performed
those wonderfully daring deeds that made him a name and fame apart
from all other war-records. These feats so particularly belong to
Cushing's record, rather than to the history of any years of the war,
that they may well be considered together here. The wonderful
exhibitions of daring by which this young officer earned his promotion
to the rank of a commander, while still hardly more than a boy, were
the ascent of New River Inlet in the steamer "Ellis," for the purpose
of destroying the enemy's salt-works, and a blockade-runner at New
Topsail Inlet; and finally, the great achievement of his life, the
destruction of the ram "Albemarle" in the Roanoke River.

Lieut. Cushing entered the navy during the first year of the civil war,
being himself at that time but nineteen years old. A comrade who served
with him at the time of the destruction of the "Albemarle" describes him
as about six feet high, very slender, with a smooth face, and dark wavy
hair. Immediately upon his joining the navy, he was assigned to duty
with the blockading squadron on the Atlantic coast. He distinguished
himself during the first year of the war, at a time when the
opportunities of the service were not very brilliant, by unfailing
vigilance, and soon won for himself the honor of a command. In November,
1862, he was put in command of the steamer "Ellis," and ordered to
preserve the blockade of New River Inlet on the North Carolina coast,
not far from the favorite port of the blockade-runners, Wilmington. The
duties of a blockading man-of-war are monotonous, at best. Lying at
anchor off the mouth of the blockaded harbor, or steaming slowly up and
down for days together, the crew grow discontented; and the officers are
at their wits' end to devise constant occupation to dispel the
turbulence which idleness always arouses among sailors. Inaction is the
great enemy of discipline on board ship, and it is for this reason that
the metal and trimmings aboard a man-of-war are so continually being
polished. A big brass pivot-gun amidships will keep three or four
jackies polishing an hour or two every day; and petty officers have been
known to go around secretly, and deface some of the snowy woodwork or
gleaming brass, when it seemed that surfaces to be polished were
becoming exhausted. It is no unusual thing to set