James Wood Bush
James Wood Bush . James Wood Bush (c. 1844 – 1906) was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation. Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard the USS Vandalia (depiction shown) and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. Returning to Hawaii in 1877, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy.