Midshipman William Barker Cushing writes of "the huge weight of the crisis" on the U.S. Naval Academy

From Annapolis, Midshipman William Barker Cushing wrote to a cousin of the current state of the Naval Academy saying that cadets were resigning everyday and that "each southerner has orders to resign as soon as his state secedes."  Outside the gates in Maryland "men were arming in every portion of the State."  Cushing, younger brother of Gettysburg hero Alonzo Cushing was himself to achieve fame in the upcoming war as a naval raider. (By John Osborne)