One of the Cumberland's cannon is mounted in Oak Hill Cemetery, South Avenue, Battle Creek, Michigan (Calhoun Co.). The inscription on the attached plaque reads: "This gun was in service on the Cumberland during the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. Mounted here by Farragut Post No. 32, Department of Michigan, G. A. R. in commemoration of the heroic services of Union soldiers and sailors during the Civil War"
The Hampton Roads Naval Museum (HRNM) uses the Cumberland as part of their logo.
Their quarterly publication, Daybook, has a 9-part series on the Cumberland:
Part 6-Rebuilding a Classic (Conversion to the Sloop-of-War)
Part 7-Sailing for the Union (Opening Operations in the Civil War)
Part 8-Death with Honor (Battle of Hampton Roads)
Part 9-The Flagship at Rest (Rediscovery and Recovery)
Crew
Alrop, Philander D. Wrote (a version of?) "Cumberland's Crew, or History of the Battle between the Cumberland and Merrimac". Broadside at Brown Univ. indicates he was wounded on Mar. 8 as a crewman of the Cumberland but not on Radford's list of survivors.
Avery, Daniel Plumer
In US Navy, was on board the "Cumberland," witnessed the battle of the "Merrimack" and "Monitor." [so apparently not on board at the time] Re-enlisted private, Co. H., 9th Reg’t. Mustered Aug. 21, 1862. Deserted at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862, when ordered to assist in conveying Col. Titus from the field. Re-enlisted for two years in Gibbs (Mass.) Battery. After a year came home on a furlough,and was advertised to lecture in a school-house in Rochester, where he was arrested as a deserter. Was allowed to return to his Regiment. Served in the "Red River Expedition" where he is supposed to have died, as he has not since been heard from. [T12]
Benson, James, Ordinary Seaman[T5][T10][T14]
Rheumatism, March 8, 1862. The list of wounded indicates he was on the sick list previous to the engagement.[T14]
Clark, William, unknown
Born 3/24/1835. Died 8/2/1906. Buried Overlook Cemetery, Bridgeton, NJ. In the USN, he jumped overboard from the Cumberland when it was sunk..[T17]
Fitzpatrick, John, Coal Heaver
Listed as wounded on March 8, but there weren't coal heavers on the Cumberland so this may be an injury from another ship [T14]
Harrington, John M., Master's Mate[T8][T1][T10][T15]
Killed March 8, 1862. Selfridge describes his death and describes him as Acting Master's Mate.[T15] Abbott has him as Acting Master's Mate.
Heywood, Charles, Marine 2nd Lt., Commanding Marine Guard[T8][T1] [T4] [T15][T10][T16].
Apparently in command of the two extereme after guns. The first shot from the Virginia killed or wounded 9 of his crew and knocked him down. Captian Heywood took over the captured CSS Tennessee from Franklin Buchanan. See the footnote on page 207 of "An August Morning with Farragut" in Scribner's Monthly, June 1880. Abbott and Sullivan say he was a First Lt.[T4][T16]. Radford has "Lt. Charles Hayward".[T10]. Picture in Sullivan.
Livingston, Lauchlin or Tochlin, Ordinary Seaman[T5][T10][T14]
Intermittent injury, March 8, 1862("Tochlin Livingston").[T5] Radford's list of survivors has "Lauchlin Livingston"[T5]The list of wounded indicates he was on the sick list previous to the engagement.[T14]
McGunn, John, Ordinary Seaman
Slight wound right side of head, March 8, 1862.[T5][T10][T14]
Radford has "John McGlinn". List of wounded has "John McGinn"
McFadden, Alex, Marine Private[T16]
Lacerated wound of left arm, March 8, 1862.
Morris, George U., Lieutenant, Executive Officer[T8][T1][T10][T15]
In command during the battle.. See the image at the Naval Historical Center. He was from Massachusetts.
O'Connor, Daniel, Marine Private[T3][T10] Letter March 27, 1862 (and others), O'Connor papers, Marine Corps History Center[T16]
O'Neil, Charles, Master's Mate[T8][T1][T10][T15]
Selfridge and Abbott have him as an Acting Master's Mate. Eventually became Rear Admiral. See 1922 USNIP article by him.
Rogers, Robert, Ordinary Seaman
Transferred to Roanoke where he got a lacerated wound of wrist, not serious.[T5] (Not in Radford's listing) One listing indicates he was from the Congress, not the Cumberland.[T14]
Russell, Joseph, Quartermaster[T5][T10][T14]
Exhaustion; a long time in the water, March 8, 1862.[T5] The list of wounded indicates he was on the sick list previous to the engagement.[T14]
Selfridge, Theodore O., Jr., Lieutenant[T8][T1][T10][T15] Commanded the forward division of five IX-inch guns. Was from Massachusetts. Was appointed to command the Monitor on March 10, 1862. See his memoirs in the bibliography.[T15].
Stockwell, John, Boatswain's Mate [T10][T14]
Dislocation of shoulder joint.[T5] The list of wounded indicates he was seriously wounded and taken aboard the Roanoke.[T14]
Stuyvesant, W. S., Master[T8][T1][T10][T14][T15]. Commanded the after division of four IX-inch guns. Slight penetrating wound, left forearm, from splinter, March 8, 1862[T5].
Radford has "M. S. Stuyvesant".
Fired guns from the beach at the Beaufort and Raleigh after the Congress surrendered,.with 14 sailors from the Cumberland. (ORN I 7 p35)
Tierney, Matthew C., Seaman [T10][T15] Selfridge describes him as a Coxswain and says he had been mortally wounded and fired the last gun, going down with the ship.[T15]
Tyson, E.V., Master's Mate[T8][T1][T10][T15] Selfridge and Abbott have "H. Tyson" as Acting Master's Mate.
Wade, Terence, 2d-Class Boy [T10][T14]
Lacerated wound of neck, not serious.[T5] The list of wounded indicates he was not seriously wounded and was taken aboard the Roanoke. It also indicates he was a 1st-Class Boy.[T14]
Wiltse, G.C., Lt.[T18] NOT LISTED in most sources, so there is some question. Born 29 Nov 1838 in NY; graduated the Naval Academy in 1859; Appointed lieutenant in 1861 and commander in 1873; Commended for "courageously performing his duty" on the Cumberland. [ORN references a Lt. G. C. Wiltse (Ex. Officer of the US Ironclad Montauk in Nov. 1863), while F. A. Parker uses Lt. C. G. Wiltse]
Wyman, Henry, Acting Master's Mate[T8][T1][T10][T15]
Radford lists him as a Master's Mate.
Young, Notley, Marine Private [T16]
Killed March 8.
The guns were manned by 16 man crews with one powder boy.[T1]
Radford indicates 121 of the 376 men and officers were lost on March 8.
Selfridge indicates that three soldiers from shore who had come off to visit the ship were unable to return, and asked permission to join the guns' crews. Two were killed and one escaped.[T15]
Unfortunately, I have not yet collected the names of the other crew. Any help would be appreciated. The names of most of the survivors is in the 1862 Report of the Secretary of the Navy.[T10]
References:
[T1] Selfridge, Thomas O. "The Merrimac and the Cumberland"The Cosmopolitan, A Monthly Illustrated Magazine, volume XV, The Cosmopolitan Press, 1893, pp 176-184.
[T2] Brander Matthews, "A Decoration Day Revery", The Century, Vol. 40, Issue 1, May 1880, pp 102-105
[T3] Letter from Daniel O'Connor, March 13, 1862. In possession of Jack Connor. Copy in Personal Papers Section, Marine Corps Historical Society.
[T4] Abbott, John Stevens Cabot, The History of the Civil War in America. 1864. Vol. 1, p. 342.
[T5] Wood, Wm. Maxwell, Fleet Surgeon, Report transmitting list of killed and wounded, March 12, 1862. ORN I, v7, p15-17
[T6] Wood, Wm. Maxwell, Fleet Surgeon, Report of killed and wounded on and alongside the Minnesota in the action of the 8th and 9th March, 1862, March 10, 1862. ORN I, v7, p12-13
[T7] Wood, Wm. Maxwell, Fleet Surgeon, Additional report of Fleet Surgeon Wood, U. S. Navy, transmitting list of killed and wounded, March 14, 1862. ORN I, v7, p17-18
[T8] Radford, William, Commander USS Cumberland, Report to Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles, regarding the loss of USS Cumberland, March 10, 1862.
[T10] United States Government. Message of the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress. Vol. 3. 1862. House of Representatives, 37th Congress, 3rd session. Ex. Doc. 1. Washington, DC. 1862. 931pp William Radford's list of survivors page 99-102.
[T11]History and Traditions of Marblehead, Mass by Samuel Roads Jr, Houghton, Osgood and Co, 1880, pp 294-295. (Reference supplied by Maureen Graves Anderson.)
[T13] Personal communication from Tony Forde, May 8, 2001; Mar. 19, 2003. According to obituaries in the New York's Irish World on his brothers (Patrick and Austin, founders of the above newspapers), he perished aboard the Cumberland at Hampton Roads. A book on his nephew, Bishop Francis X. Ford, also quotes the same incident. James P. Rodechko, Patrick Ford and his search for America. Arno Press Inc(1976) p.32: "Ford's youngest brother, at the age of fourteen, enlisted as a drummer boy, while an older brother served in the navy and was killed in the sinking of the Cumberland by the ironclad Merrimac." Raymond A. Lane, Stone in the King's Highway McMullen Books, Inc. (1953) p.4: "Another son, Thomas, was already in the navy and lost his life when the Cumberland was sunk by the Confederate ironclad, Merrimac."
[T14] United States Government. Message of the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress. Vol. 3. 1862. House of Representatives, 37th Congress, 3rd session. Ex. Doc. 1. Washington, DC. 1862. 931pp
Report on the Killed and Wounded p96-97.
[T15]Memoirs of Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., Rear Admiral, U.S.N. with an introduction by Captain Dudley W. Knox. New York & London, G.P. Putnam's sons, 1924.
[T16] Sullivan, David M. The United States Marine Corps in the Civil War -- The Second Year. White Mane Publishing Company, Inc. Shippenburg, PA. 1997.
[T17] 3rd New Jersey Cavalry Co. H. http://www.geocities.com/rdenm76900/CompanyH2.html August 27, 2004. This source indicates he was later a private in Co. H. Source quoted is Historic Days in Cumberland County, New Jersey by Nichols.
[T18]Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia 1875-1878.p 1439.
