Was Howard Cushing the Inspiration for Luke Skywalker?-- Part 5

Twenty-five years later, Edgar Rice Burroughs was stationed at Fort Grant with the 7th Cavalry, the same unit which lost so many at the Little Big Horn with George Custer.  By 1896, Fort Grant was a desolate outpost where Burroughs spent his time fighting dysentery, digging ditches and running the cavalry unit's.

Homesick, he wrote his politically connected father back in Chicago and managed to get an early discharge after serving just ten months of a three-year enlistment.

Burroughs scholars point out that he studied John G. Bourke's books for research, including an ethnology report in which Bourke described caves with peculiar medicinal properties used by the Apaches.

Burroughs may have used that as a plot device; in his series, John Carter enters a cave where he's overcome, leaves his body and ends up on Mars.  Bourke also described Howard Cushing in several chapters in his memoir, "On the Border With Crook," which Burroughs most likely read.

Definitely an Inspiration for John Carter.  --Old Secesh

Was Howard Cushing the Inspiration for Luke Skywalker"-- Part 4

A central character in the Cushing-is-Skywalker question is John G. Bourke, who served in the 3rd Cavalry in Arizona and New Mexico with Howard Cushing as their troop chased and fought Apaches, including Geronimo.

The two were posted to several forts, among them Fort Grant in Arizona.  Bourke, who earned a Medal of Honor during the Civil War, helped recover Howard Cushing's body after the first lieutenant was killed in an ambush by the Apaches in May 1871.  He called Cushing the bravest man he ever knew.

Bourke also wrote several popular books about his time in the Southwest.

Next, the Burroughs Connection.  --Old Secesh

Was Howard Cushing the Inspiration for John Carter and Luke Skywalker?-- Part 3

Meanwhile, another of Howard Cushing's brothers, William, was a Union naval officer who gained fame by sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle in a daring raid.  His other numerous exploits have him sometimes called "Lincoln's Commando."  He needs to be put up for a Medal of Honor in his own right.

"So, how does Howard Cushing, greatly outshone by two of his brothers, end up possibly inspiring Luke Skywalker  Through the imagination of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who dreamed up John Carter of Mars, which he serialized in a pulp magazine before creating Tarzan."

Jim Heinz said that Howard Cushing was the forgotten Cushing brother.  While he was researching his life, he found a fanzine for Edgar Rice Burroughs which said that Howard was the basis for the John Carter of Mars character.  After further research, he concluded that the fanzine was probably right.

--Old Secesh

Luke Skywalker: Civil War Hero?-- Part 2: Medal of Honor-Winning Brother

Howard Bass Cushing survived brutal Civil War battles before heading west.

Jim Heinz, a retired University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police officer and Civil War buff believes there to be a connection between Howard and Luke of the movies.Howard Cushing was born in Milwaukee in 1838  before his family moved to Delafield, Wisconsin where he and his three brothers spent part of their childhood.

Two of his brothers became famous in the Civil War.  There is a monument today in the city's Cushing Park honoring them.  All four brothers fought in the Civil War and President Obama awarded Howard's younger brother, Alonzo, the Congressional Medal of Honor last year.

Alonzo was an artillery officer killed at the Battle of Gettysburg as his battery helped stop Pickett's Charge.  After the battle,Howard petitioned the secretary of war to serve in his fallen brother's unit-- a request that President Lincoln personally approved.

When Howard joined Battery A, 4th Artillery, one of the men gave him the bloody shoulder straps Alonzo was wearing at the battle when he was killed.

--Old Secesh

Luke Skywalker: Civil War Hero?-- Part 1: A Link with Howard Bass Cushing

From the Dec. 24, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Meg Jones.

"Luke Skywalker, the swash-buckling, light saber-rattling hero of George Lucas' imagination, could be based on a Civil War hero born in Milwaukee.

"Emphasis on 'could.'

"Some 'Star Wars' fans will likely scoff at the idea that Darth Vader's son was inspired by a soldier who lost his father at an young age and left home to wage war in a land far, far away.

"But an amateur historian and Civil War buff from Milwaukee thinks he can draw a fairly straight  line from Howard Bass Cushing to the hero of the blockbuster franchise."

Whose Father?  --Old Secesh

Cushing Brothers Burials

Milton Cushing is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

Howard B. Cushing is buried at Fort Lowell in Arizona.  He was later reinterred at the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio.

Alonzo Cushing is buried at the USMA at West Point, New York.

William Cushing is buried at the USNA at Annapolis, Maryland.

--Old Secesh

Cushing Memorial Park in Delafield, Wisconsin

This inscription is on the memorial:  "So long as such men can be produced in the republic there is no danger of its decline and fall."

That pretty well sums up the Cushing Brothers.

--Old Secesh

Howard B. Cushing, U.S. Army-- Part 2

After Texas, he went to southern Arizona where he and his command  reportedly killed more Apaches than any other troop.

In May 1871, Howard Cushing and 22 troopers were ambushed by  Chiricahui Apaches under Cochise on May 5th and in fierce hand-to-hand combat, Cushing and several of his men were killed.

Their bodies were recovered and he is buried at Fort Lowell, southwest of Tucson.

--Old Secesh

The Cushing Brothers-- Part 2: Milton Cushing

Three of the four sons of Milton Birmingham and Mary B. Cushing achieved fame in the Civil War and beyond.

The oldest brother, Milton, born in 1837 in Ohio served in the U.S. Navy, as did brother William, during the war as a paymaster from August 1864 into 1866.  he died in 1877 in Dunkirk, New York.  Buried at Forest Hill cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps gives this information on Milton Cushing:

Born Ohio.
Appointed from New York Aug. 20, 1864
Entered service as Acting Assistant Paymaster
Attached to steam gunboat USS Seneca, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 1864-1865.  The USS Seneca was one of the 90-Day Gunboats built in that amount of time in 1861 and took part if the attacks on Fort Fisher in 1865, when Milton Cushing was on board.  I imagine at some point he got together with brother William while on station off Wilmington.
Assigned to steam gunboat USS Chicora, Gulf squadron 1865-1866
Appointed Passed Assistant Paymaster, U.S. Navy July 23, 1865.
Assigned to steamer USS Suwanee, North Pacific Squadron 1866-1868
Commissioned Paymaster in 1869.

It's a Navy Brother.  --Old Secesh

The Cushing Brothers-- Part 1

From the May 6, 2012, North Against South blog "The Four Cushing Brothers" by Richard Billies.

The last three posts, I wrote about Alonzo Cushing receiving his Medal of Honor for his heroic action at the Battle of Gettysburg, but he also had three other brothers who served during the war.  Two were in the Navy and one other in the Army.

One of these other three, in my opinion should also receive a Medal of Honor for his actions on sea and land, and particularly for leading the expedition that sank the powerful Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle.

I am referring to William Barker Cushing who led many courageous reconnaissance missions as well as being in the naval brigade that attacked Fort Fisher.

This last month I have written a lot about his sinking of the Albemarle in my Running the Blockade blog.  Go to it and click on his name in the labels.

--Old Secesh