Richard C. Cushing, Regimental Quartermaster, 11th MD Infantry Regiment, Union Army
John Cushing, Jr., 1st Lt., Co. E., 1st MD Infantry Regiment, Confederate Army
Sons of prominent Baltimore bookseller and merchant.
Why the split in loyalties?
Richard and John Cushing were born to Baltimore bookseller and merchant John Cushing and his wife, Frances Cromwell. John came first on 18 Mar 1837, with Richard following five years later on 27 April 1842. Both would spend their pre-war years working in their father’s bookshop as clerks.
Two of their cousins, Robert and Joseph E. Cushing, sons of their father’s brother David, would also serve the Confederacy, both dying during the war, Robert at Gettysburg, and Joseph of disease at Winchester, Va.
The Cushing family came to Baltimore from New Hampshire early in the 19th century and owned no slaves, so why did John and his cousins don the uniform of the Confederacy while Richard remained loyal to the Union? Unfortunately, that is an answer that lies in the archives of history, categorized as “unknown.”
