Curtis, JAMES LANGDON, politician; born in Stratford, Conn., about 1820; engaged in business in New York City; was the candidate of the American party for President in 1888; and received 1,591 popular votes. He died Nov. 12, 1903.

appointed commander of the 2d Brigade, 24th Army Corps, in the Army of the James, with which he took part in the siege of Richmond and captured Fort Gregg, near Petersburg, on April 2, 1865; for which he was promoted brigadier-general. He died in West Liberty, W. Va., Aug. 25, 1891.

Curtis, SAMUEL RYAN, military officer; born near Champlain, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1805; graduated at West Point in 1831, and the following year left the army and studied law; served under General Taylor in the war with Mexico, and was General Wool's assistant adjutant-general in that war. He was for a while governor of Saltillo. He became a member of Congress in 1857, retaining that post until 1861, and was a member of the Peace Congress. In May, 1861, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, and in March, 1862, major-general. Commanding United States and Foreign Powers. the army in Missouri, he gained the battle of PEA RIDGE (q. v.). After the war he was appointed United States commissioner to treat with Indian tribes

Curtis, WILLIAM ELEROY, author; born in Akron, O., Nov. 5, 1850; graduated at Western Reserve College in 1871; was special commissioner from the United States to the Central and South American republics; executive officer of the International American Conference; director of the Bureau of American Republics; and special envoy to the Queen Regent of Spain and to Pope Leo XIII., in 1892. His publications include The

SAMUEL RYAN CURTIS.

Curwen, SAMUEL, jurist; born in Salem, Mass., Dec. 28, 1715; graduated at Harvard in 1735; took part in the Louisburg expedition; was appointed judge of the Admiralty Court in 1775. Being a loyalist he was obliged to leave Salem and did not return until 1784. His journal which he kept during his exile, and his letters, were published in 1842. He died in Salem, Mass, April 9, 1802.

Curzon, GEORGE NATHANIEL, British diplomatist; born in Kedleston, Derbyshire, Jan. 11, 1859; educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1885 he was assistant private secretary to the Marquis of Salisbury, and in 1886 became a member of Parliament. In 1891-92 he served as under-secretary of state for India; in 1895 was appointed under-secretary of state for foreign af fairs; and in August, 1898, he became viceroy of India. In the following month he was raised to the peerage, with the title of Baron Curzon of Kedleston. In 1895 he married Mary, daughter of L. Z. Leiter, of Chicago.

Cushing, CALEB, jurist; born in SalisCurtis, WILLIAM BAKER, military offi- bury, Mass., Jan. 17, 1800; graduated cer; born in Sharpsburg, Md., April 18, at Harvard University in 1817; became 1821; was a member of the Wheeling a distinguished lawyer, in which profesconvention to organize a State govern- sion he began practice at Newburyport, ment for West Virginia in 1861; entered the Union army as captain in the 12th West Virginia Infantry in 1862; and was promoted colonel and given command of a brigade in 1864. Subsequently he was

Mass. He served in the State legislature, and was in Congress from 1835 to 1843, as a Whig Representative, when, with Mr. Tyler, he became an active member of the Democratic party. Presi

dent Tyler sent him as commissioner to China, where, in 1844, he negotiated an important treaty. He advocated the

CALEB CUSHING.

policy of war with Mexico, and led a regiment to the field. In 1853 President Pierce called Mr. Cushing to his cabinet as Attorney-General. In 1860 he was president of the Democratic convention at Charleston. In 1866 he was one of three commissioners appointed to codify the laws of the United States; in 1871 was one of the counsel on the part of the United States before the Geneva Arbitration Tribunal; and in 1873-77 was minister to Spain. He died in Newburyport, Mass., Jan. 2, 1879.

and conducted excavations among them and the great buried cities in southern Arizona. In 1895 he discovered the extensive remains of a sea-dwelling people along the Gulf coast of Florida, and in 1896 led there the Pepper-Hearst expedition. Was author of The Myths of Creation; Preliminary Report of PepperHearst Expedition on the Ancient Key Dwellers of Florida; The Arrow; and many official reports and papers. He died in Washington, D. C., April 10, 1900. Cushing, HARRY ALONZO, educator; born in Lynn, Mass., in 1870; graduated at Amherst in 1891. He is the author of King's College in the American Revolution; The Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Government in Massachusetts; editor of The Writings of Samuel Adams, etc.

Cushing, THOMAS, statesman; born in Boston, March 24, 1725; graduated at Harvard in 1744, and for many years represented his native city in the General Court, of which body he became speaker in 1763, and held that post until 1774. His signature was affixed, during all that time, to all public documents of the province, which made his name so conspicuous that, in his pamphlet, Taxation no Tyranny, Dr. Johnson said, "One object of the Americans is said to be to adorn the brows of Cushing with a diadem." He was a member of the first and second Continental Congresses; was commissarygeneral in 1775; a judge; and in 1779 was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, which office he held until his death, in Boston, Feb. 28, 1788.

Cushing, FRANK HAMILTON, ethnologist; born in Northeast, Pa., July 22, 1857; became interested early in life in collecting Indian relics. In 1875 he was commissioned by Prof. Spencer F. Baird Cushing, WILLIAM, jurist; born in to make surveys and collections for the Scituate, Mass., March 1, 1732; gradNational Museum; in 1876 was the cu- uated at Harvard University in 1751; rator of the ethnological exhibit of the studied law; became eminent in his proNational Museum at the Centennial Ex- fession; was attorney-general of Massaposition in Philadelphia; in 1879 was chusetts; a judge of probate in 1768; assistant ethnologist with Major J. W. judge of the Superior Court in 1772; and Powell in the expedition to New Mexico; in 1777 succeeded his father as chief-jusand at his own request was left with the tice of that court. Under the Massachu Zuni Indians, where he lived for three setts constitution of 1788 he was made years, and later for three additional chief-justice of the State; and in 1789 years; acquired their language and tra- President Washington appointed him a ditions; was initiated into their priest- justice of the Supreme Court of the United hood; and was thus the first white man States. He offered him the chief-justiceto learn the true character of Indian ship in 1796, as the successor of Jay, but secret societies. In 1881 he discovered he declined it. He administered the oath the ruins of the Seven Cities of Cibola, of office to Washington in his second in

auguration. He died in Scituate, Sept. he performed some remarkable deeds an 13, 1810.

left reputation unparalleled for so young an officer.

Cushing, WILLIAM BARKER, naval officer; born in Delafield, Wis., Nov. 4, 1843; One of the most gallant and successful entered the navy in 1857; resigned, and affairs accomplished during the Civil War was reappointed in 1861. He performed was the destruction of a Confederate ironexploits remarkable for coolness and cour- clad ram by Lieutenant Cushing at age during the war, the most notable of Plymouth, N. C., on the night of Oct. 27, which was the destruction of the Confed- 1864. It may be remembered that the erate ram Albemarle (q. v.) at Plymouth, ram Albemarle had suddenly appeared at N. C. For this he received a vote of Plymouth, causing the destruction of the thanks from Congress. In 1868-69 he United States steamer Southfield, the commanded (as lieutenant-commander) the death of the brave Lieutenant Flusser, steamer Maumee in the Asiatic squadron. and the retreat of the double-ender Miami, He died in Washington, D. C., Dec. 17, 1874. and had subsequently attacked a flotilla Destruction of the "Albemarle."-The under Capt. Melancton Smith, inflicting following handsome tribute to Cushing much damage, but was obliged finally to and detailed narrative of his famous ex- retire before the Union vessels under the guns of Plymouth, which had fallen into the hands of the Confederates owing to the advent of the Albemarle.

WILLIAM BARKER CUSHING.

ploit were penned by Admiral David D. Porter, in a private letter under date of Nov. 21, 1888:

As soon as Lieutenant Cushing heard of this affair he offered his services to the Navy Department to blow up the Albemarle, provided the department would furnish proper torpedo-boats with which to operate. His services were accepted, and he was ordered to the New York navyyard to superintend the fitting-out of three torpedo-launches on a plan deemed at that time a very perfect one.

Cushing, though a dashing "free-lance," was not so well adapted to the command of a "flotilla " (as he called his three steam-launches). When completed, he started with his boats from New York, via the Delaware and Raritan Canal, as proud as a peacock. One of them sank in the canal soon after he started; another was run on shore by the officer in charge, on the coast of Virginia, in Chesapeake Bay, where she was surrendered to the Confederates; while Cushing, with that singular good luck which never deserted him, steamed down the bay through the most stormy weather, and arrived safely at Hampton Roads, where he reported to me on board the flag-ship Malvern.

I like to talk and write about Cushing. He was one of those brave spirits developed by the Civil War who always rose to the occasion. He was always ready to undertake any duty, no matter how desperate, and he generally succeeded in his enterprises, from the fact that the enemy This was my first acquaintance with supposed that no man would be foolhardy Cushing, and, after inquiring into all the enough to embark in such hazardous af- circumstances of the loss of the other two fairs where there seemed so little chance torpedo-boats, I did not form the most of success. A very interesting volume favorable opinion of Cushing's abilities could be written on the adventures of as a flotilla commander. Cushing's conCushing from the time he entered the dition when he reported on board the navy until his death, during which period flag-ship was most deplorable. He had

been subjected to the severest exposure for over a week, without shelter, had lost all his clothes except what little he had on, and his attenuated face and sunken eyes bore witness to the privations he had suffered. Officers and crew had subsisted on spoiled ship's biscuit and water and an occasional potato roasted before the boiler fire.

on his way rejoicing, passed through the canal, and on Oct. 27 reported to Commander Macomb.

Cushing was near coming to grief on his first setting-out. Like all "free-lances," he liked a frolic, and could not resist champagne and terrapin; so on the evening of his arrival at Norfolk he gave a supper to his numerous friends, "and I at once ordered Cushing and his men then-the deluge!" I heard of the supper, to stow themselves away for rest, and di- of course-it was my business to hear of rected them not to appear till sent for. such things-and I despatched FleetIn the mean time the launch, which had Captain Breese in a swift steam-launch to been very much disarranged and shat- arrest the delinquent and have him tried tered, was being put in complete order. for intruding on the entente cordiale beAfter the officers and crew had obtained tween the United States and Great Britforty-eight hours' rest, I sent for Cush- ain; but Captain Breese returned with ing and gave him his instructions, which the report that Cushing was on his way, were to proceed through the Dismal and that "it was all right." "No," I Swamp Canal and the sounds of North said, "it is not all right'; and if the Carolina, and blow up the Albemarle, expedition fails, you-” But never mind then lying at Plymouth preparing for what I said. another raid on the Union fleet. Commander W. H. Macomb, commanding in the sound, was ordered to give Cushing all the assistance in his power with men and boats.

When rested and dressed, Cushing was a different-looking man from the pitiable object who had presented himself to me two days before. Scanning him closely, I asked him many questions, all of which were answered satisfactorily, and, after looking steadily into his cold gray eye and finding that he did not wink an eyelid, I said: "You will do. I am satisfied that you will perform this job. If you do, you will be made a lieutenantcommander."

On the very morning appointed for Cushing to sail on his perilous expedition an order came from the Navy Department to try him by court-martial for some infraction of international law towards an English vessel, which, according to Mr. Seward, had endangered the entente cordiale between England and the United States. I showed Cushing the order, but he was not disconcerted. Admiral," he said, "let me go and blow up the Albemarle, and try me afterwards."

"Well done for you," I said; "I will do it. Now get off at once, and do not fail, or you will rue it."

So Cushing, who dreaded a courtmartial more than he did the ram, went

By eight o'clock on Oct. 27 Cushing had picked out his volunteers from Macomb's flotilla. They consisted of thirteen officers and men, one of whom was the faithful William L. Howarth, who had accompanied him in most of his daring adventures, and these two together felt that they were a match for any iron-clad in the Confederacy. That night Cushing started off on the expedition, towing the Otsego's cutter with an armed crew, who were to be employed in seizing the Confederate lookouts on board of the late United States steamer Southfield, which lay below Plymouth with her decks just above water.

The ram lay about 8 miles from the mouth of the river, which was 200 or 300 yards in width and supposed to be lined with Confederate pickets. The wreck of the Southfield was surrounded by schooners, and it was understood that a gun had been mounted here to command the bend of the river. When the steamlaunch and her tow reached the Southfield, the hearts of the adventurers began to beat with anxiety. Every moment they expected a load of grape and canister, which would have been the signal for qui vive all along the river-bank.

The expedition was looked upon as a kind of forlorn hope by all who saw it start, and Cushing himself was not certain of success until after he passed the Southfield and the schooners. His keen