References
| USA |
The 8 March 1862 saw the sinking of the USS Cumberland by the CSS Virginia at Newport News, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Well over a hundred men were lost, but among the survivors was Galway’s John Carr - after making a half-mile swim to shore. Captain Carr had arrived in Boston at the end of the Famine in 1850 (in his eleventh year) and had enlisted in the Navy prior to the outbreak of the war. A truly remarkable character, Carr fought in many battles on sea and land, and had previously fought in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861. The last living survivor of the Cumberland, Carr died of pneumonia at Charlestown in 1913, aged 74. Pictured is a coloured lithograph of the sinking by Currier and Ives.
This Chronicle was created using information originally published in the South East Galway Archaeological and Historical Society Newsletter No. 26.
