The Angel of Marye’s Heights During the Defense of Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862
lmost two years into the war that President Lincoln declared upon his own people in order to constrain the southern states to remain in the union, the Union Army of the Potomac was met at the small town of Fredericksburg, Virginia by General Robert E. Lee and his army of native men. There at Fredericksburg, the Union army was defeated by the natural defenses of the mighty Rappahannock River, the necessity of a wide open attack under fire from Confederate snipers, and one of the most formidable displays of artillery yet seen during the conflict.
Fredericksburg, VA in 1862 from the east bank of the Rappahannock River
The Union objective of flanking General Lee and seizing the Confederate capitol at Richmond utterly failed here, as did President Lincoln’s fresh reshuffling of generals—he had recently appointed General Burnside to replace the lackadaisical General McClellan, and perhaps in a drive to prove himself worthy of the promotion, Burnside pushed his luck one too many times during his drive deeper into Virginia. The Confederacy was ready for him on this day and even the muddled bureaucracy of Washington, DC played a part in crippling Burnside’s logistical chances of outmaneuvering his opponent. At the end of the grueling five-day engagement, General Burnside would withdraw his army back across the Rappahannock River, relinquishing all ground gained by the loss of a horrifying 12,500 casualties.
Fredericksburg, VA in February, 1863 from across the Rappahannock River showing the destruction from the Battle of Fredericksburg the previous December
Reports of the battle swirled across the country in the winter interim before spring came and any large scale battles resumed. The politicians in Washington were shaken by the staunch defense of Fredericksburg and the seemingly impermeable ground between them and Richmond, while the Confederacy was greatly invigorated by so unequivocal a victory. From the battle itself there came many individual stories that are still considered essential to and representative of the Civil War mythos. Amongst the carnage there were brave displays of humanity, and these are the tales that swell hearts and captivate those who read of war. In the words of General Lee after this very battle, “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”
Amongst these harrowing stories is that of “The Angel of Marye’s Heights.”
Marye’s House upon Marye’s Heights was the center of the Confederate position during the Battle of Fredericksburg, VA, 1862—Confederate troop encampments are visible to the right
Hunkered down behind a stone wall and armed to the teeth, stacked three ranks deep along a sunken road at the bottom of Marye’s Heights outside Fredericksburg, was the veteran division of General James Longstreet. Perched above them on the heights themselves was a portion of Confederate artillery under Colonel Alexander who assured Lee before the expected assault that, “A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it.”
Confederate troops commanded by Generals Cobb and Kershaw fire at attacking Union soldiers from behind a stone wall during the Battle of Fredericksburg, 1862
The Union soldiers had to charge into the face of this ferocious defense, thus earning that patch of ground the wretched name “the slaughter pen.” Line after line of men in blue advanced into the Confederate “sheet of flame” but not one man actually reached the stone wall. In one hour alone the Union army lost nearly 3,000 men.
Burial of the dead after the Battle of Fredericksburg
Only when nightfall descended on December 13 did the ponderous guns fall silent. Temperatures fell, the earth froze, and the haze of gunpowder clung noxious in the air, shrouding the opposing lines. Then, in that uncanny quiet, the cries of the wounded between that stone wall and their withdrawn comrades began to ascend until their noise grew cacophonous.
The Sunken Road at Marye’s Heights
The Sunken Road at Marye’s Heights
Unable to remain indifferent to their misery, one Confederate sergeant—South Carolinian Richard Rowland Kirkland—leapt over the stone wall that had served as his defense in the terrible hours before and began to minister to the enemy wounded beyond. He carried an armload of canteens his fellow soldiers had contributed and was prevented from touting a white flag as it might be misconstrued as a surrender of the entire Confederate position. He had begged his commander twice to be allowed to go, and after an initial refusal, finally prevailed in his plea.
Richard Rowland Kirkland (1843-1863)
Fully expecting to be shot as soon as he showed himself, and with dire warnings regarding the same from his superior, Sergeant Kirkland nevertheless dared and went over the wall—and so became a legend of mercy on a day of calamitous butchery. It was said the opposing Federal troops held their fire long enough for Kirkland to kneel down, lift up the head of one wounded man and give him a drink of water; with his incredible goal apparent, a loud cheer arose and rolled down the opposing Federal line. Astounded, the line of withdrawn Northern troops watched Kirkland move from one of their abandoned comrades to another, both sides holding their fire as Kirkland went back and forth over the wall for an hour and a half until after dawn had broken. When he had done all he could do, Kirkland returned safely to the Confederate line behind the wall. The fighting and the carnage would then resume for another three days.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park Memorial to the “Angel of Marye’s Heights”, Richard Rowland Kirkland
Sergeant Kirkland’s moving display of humanity was most famously recounted in writing and commended by his superior officer, General Joseph Kershaw, CSA. The general wrote:
“‘Kirkland,’ I said to him, ‘don’t you know that you would get a bullet through your head the moment you stepped over the wall?’ To which Kirkland replied: ‘Yes, sir. I know that; but if you will let me, I am willing to try it.’
By the time his purpose was well understood on both sides, all danger was over. From all parts of the field arose fresh cries of ‘Water, for God’s sake, water!’ More piteous still, the mute appeal of some who could only feebly lift a hand to say, ‘Here, too, is life and suffering‘. For an hour and a half did this ministering angel pursue his labor of mercy, nor ceased to go and return until he had relieved all of the wounded on that part of the field. He returned wholly unhurt.”
General Joseph Brevard Kershaw, CSA (1822-1894)
Sunken Road and stone wall at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
It is still considered by many to be the single most compassionate action of the war, and one that highlighted the cruelty fomented and waged between Americans of similar heritage and principles. In recent years modern historians have taken much enjoyment in suggesting this errand of mercy did not occur at all, pointing out that while corroborating reports to that of General Kershaw do exist, in many cases they also conflict. Perhaps not with the entire premise, but at least in the particulars of the report, these details being the supposed hour-and-a-half ceasefire, and there being only one man who dared go over the wall. This is at least partially supported by famed American author Walt Whitman himself, who was serving as a nurse and correspondent at a Washington hospital after the battle, and recorded that some of his patients wounded at Fredericksburg reported the presence of multiple Confederate soldiers moving amongst them on that dawn for “benevolent purposes.” And yet, other members of Sergeant Kirkland’s own brigade reported his act of bravery but insisted it occurred amidst an exchange of gunfire between the opposing sides. Among these was one Captain William Hix who published this narrative in an article published in Columbia, South Carolina’s Daily Phoenix during the year 1874:
“After the gallant charge of the Irish Brigade upon the stone fence behind which a portion of Gen. Kershaw’s division of South Carolinians were posted, the ground was covered with the dead and dying Unionists, who, on the repulse and retreat, were left to suffer the untold agonies of the battle field….The Irish made as heroic a charge as it had been hopeless and fatal; and when they retreated, both armies kept up a murderous sharpshooting upon each other….Sergeant Kirkland, one of the sharpshooters, stationed behind the stone wall, is the hero of one incident. The groans of the Federalists lying just over the wall pierced his humane heart, and his kindly human nature rebelled against the cruelty of their suffering. They cried for water, and there was no friendly hand to bring it. Kirkland resolved to make the attempt to relieve the wants of the dying, and with that moral and physical heroism which surmounts all obstacles, and dares death for the good of others, he went to them, the object of a murderous fire, and put his canteen like a blessed Samaritan to the lips of a dying soldier.”
Monument to Kirkland titled “Moment of Mercy”
With these accounts proliferating, it is no wonder the legend of “The Angel of Marye’s Heights” blossomed during the reconciliation period after the war. Near the turn of the century, the artist William Ludwell Sheppard painted a now-iconic scene of Kirkland giving water to a wounded Union soldier, and in 1908 the poet Walter Clark penned a moving tribute to the young South Carolinian. Proof of this growing public appreciation came a year later when Kirkland’s remains were disinterred from the neglected, overgrown family plot and given a “more prestigious burial” beneath a large engraved stone in the town’s Quaker cemetery in Camden, S.C.
Grave of Richard Rowland Kirkland, CSA in Camden, SC
Sergeant Kirkland himself was sadly killed in the war, not even a year after his errand of mercy. He was mortally wounded at the battle to Chickamauga, fighting again under General Longstreet and trying to cover the retreat of the Confederate line. Upon being shot he refused his friends’ offers to assist him. Kirkland is reported to have gasped: “I am done for. You can do me no good. Save yourselves and please tell my pa I died right.” He was barely 20 years old.
Image Credits: 1 Fredericksburg, VA (wikipedia.org) 2 Fredericksburg, VA (wikipedia.org) 3 Marye’s House (wikipedia.org) 4 Troops behind the stone wall (wikipedia.org) 5 Burial of the dead (wikipedia.org) 6 Stone wall 1 (wikipedia.org) 7 Stone wall 2 (wikipedia.org) 8 Richard Rowland Kirkland (wikipedia.org) 9 Battlefield Memorial (wikipedia.org) 10 General Kershaw (wikipedia.org) 11 Sunken Road, Fredericksburg (wikipedia.org) 12 “Moment of Mercy” (wikipedia.org) 13 Kirkland’s grave (findagrave.com)
