Our Only Hope Was to Fight Our Way Out
Civil War Museum
Kenosha, Wisconsin
James Heinz Presenter. In October 1862, Wisconsin's William Cushing was aboard a Union gunboat caught in an ambush on Virginia's narrow and twisting Blackwater River, the river blocked behind him. He and his crew fought their way out in the only battle of the Civil War in which African Americans are know to have participated on both sides. Free. Second Friday Lunchbox Lecture Series sponsored by the Civil War Round Table of Milwaukee and the Iron Brigade Association.