William B. Cushing - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

After the Civil War, he served in both the Pacific and Asiatic Squadrons; he was the Executive Officer of the Lancaster and commanded the Maumee. He also served as ordnance officer in the Boston Navy Yard. Before taking command of USS Maumee, while he was on leave at home in Fredonia, that Cushing met his sister's friend, Katherine Louise Forbes. 'Kate', as she was known, would sit and listen for hours to William's stories of adventure. Having decided that he was in love with her and she with him, Cushing asked her to marry him on 1 July 1867. Unfortunately, he received orders and was gone before a ceremony could take place. Finally, on 22 February 1870, Cushing and Forbes would marry. Their first daughter, Marie Louise was born on 1 December 1871.

On 31 January 1872 he was promoted to the rank of commander, becoming the youngest up to that time to attain that rank in the Navy. Two weeks later he was detached to await orders. Weeks of waiting turned into months, but no word came. He had given up hope of another sea command, when early in June 1873 Cushing had an offer to take command of Wyoming. He took command of his new ship on 11 July 1873.

Cushing commanded the Wyoming with his typical flair for being where the action was, performing daring and courageous acts. The warship's boilers broke down twice, and in April she was ordered to Norfolk for extensive repairs. On 24 April, Cushing was detached and put on a waiting list for reassignment. He believed that he would be given the Wyoming again when she was ready for duty, but in truth, his ill-health would not permit him to command another vessel.

Cushing returned to Fredonia to see his new daughter, Katherine Abell, who had been born on 11 October 1873. His wife was shocked to see the condition of her husband. His health was in apparent decline. Kate remarked to William’s mother that he looked to be a man of sixty instead of his thirty-one years. Cushing had begun having severe attacks of pain in his hip as early as just after the sinking of the Albemarle. None of the doctors he saw were able to make a diagnosis. The term "sciatica" was used in those days without regard to cause for any inflammation of the sciatic nerve, or any pain in the region of the hip. Cushing may have had a ruptured intervertebral disc. He had suffered enough shocks to dislocate half a dozen vertebrae, and with the passage of time it would come to bear more and more heavily upon on the nerve. On the other hand, he may have been suffering from tuberculosis of the hip bone, or cancer of the prostate gland. There was nothing to be done and Cushing continued to suffer.

Cushing was next given the post of executive officer of the Washington Navy Yard. He spent the summer of 1874 pretending to be happy with his inactive role. He played with his children and enjoyed their company. On 25 August he was made senior aide at the yard; in the fall he amused himself by taking an active interest in the upcoming Congressional elections.

On Thanksgiving Day, William, Kate and his mother went to church in the morning. That night, the pain in Cushing’s back was worse than it had ever been and he could not sleep. The following Monday he dragged himself to the Navy Yard. Kate sent Lieutenant Hutchins, once of the Wyoming and now Cushing's aide, to bring his superior home. She feared that he wouldn't last the day. True to his nature, Cushing stayed at the yard until after nightfall, and went right to bed when he got home. He would not rise again. The pain was constant and terrible. He was given injections of morphine but they only dulled the pain a little.

On 8 December 1874, it became impossible to care for Cushing at home, and he was removed to the Government Hospital for the Insane. His family visited him often, but he seldom recognized them. Cushing died on 17 December 1874 in the presence of his wife and mother. He was buried on 8 January 1875 at Bluff Point, at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.

Cushing was survived by his mother, his wife, two daughters and one of his brothers. Kate Cushing, his wife, who never remarried, followed William in death thirty-five years later in January 1910.

William Cushing was a first cousin twice removed of Erskine Hamilton Childers. Cushing's grandparents, Elisha Smith and Mary Butler Bass, were also the great-grandparents of Mary Osgood, Erskine's mother. Elisha Smith was descended from Edward Fuller, and Mary Butler Bass was descended from John Alden through her father and Richard Warren through her mother.