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In several ways, Marye's Heights offered the Federals their most promising target. Not only did this sector of Lee's defenses lie closest to the shelter of Fredericksburg, but the ground rose less steeply here than on the surrounding hills.

Nevertheless, Union soldiers had to leave the city, descend into a valley bisected by a water-filled canal ditch, and ascend an open slope of 400 yards to reach the base of the heights. Artillery atop Marye's Heights and nearby elevations would thoroughly blanket the Federal approach. "A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it," boasted on Confederate cannoneer.

Sumner's first assault began at noon and set the pattern for a ghastly series of attacks that continued, one after another, until dark. As soon as the Northerners marched out of Fredericksburg, Longstreet's artillery wreaked havoc on the crisp blue formations. The Unionists then encountered a deadly bottleneck at the canal ditch which was spanned by partially-destroyed bridges at only three places. Once across this obstacle, the attackers established shallow battle lines under cover of a slight bluff that shielded them from Reel eyes.

Orders then rang out for the final advance. The landscape beyond the canal ditch contained a few buildings and fences, but from the military perspective it provided virtually no protection. Dozens of Southern cannon immediately reopened on the easy targets and when the Federals traversed about half the remaining distance, as sheet of flame spewed forth from the Sunken Road. This rifle fire decimated the Northerners. Survivors found refuge behind a small swale in the ground or retreated back to the canal ditch valley.

Quickly a new Federal brigade burst toward Marye's Heights and the "terrible stone wall," then another, and another, until three entire divisions had hurled themselves at the Confederate bastion. In one hour, the Army of the Potomac lost nearly 3,000 men; but the madness continued.

Although General Cobb suffered a mortal wound early in the action, the Southern line remained firm. Kershaw's Brigade joined North Carolinians in reinforcing Cobb's men in the Sunken Road. The Confederates stood four ranks deep, maintaining a ceaseless musketry while the gray artillerists fired over their heads.

More Union units tested the impossible. "We came forward as though breasting a storm of rain and sleet, our faces and bodies being only half- turned to the storm, our shoulders shrugged," remembered one Federal. "Everybody from the smallest drummer boy on up seemed to be shouting to the full extent of his capacity," recalled another. But each blue wave crested short of the goal. Not a single Union soldier laid his hand on the stone wall.

Lee, from his lofty perch on Telegraph Hill, watched Longstreet's almost casual destruction of Burnside's divisions as Jackson's counterattack repulsed Meade. Turning toward Longstreet, Lee confessed, "It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it."

Burnside ordered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Center Grand Division to join the attack in the afternoon, and late in the day, troops from the Fifth Corps moved forward. Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys led his division through the human debris of the previous assaults. Some of Humphreys' soldiers shook off well-meaning hands that clutched at them to prevent their advance. Part of one brigade sustained its momentum until it drew within 25 yards of the stone wall. There, it too melted away.

The final Union effort began after sunset. Colonel Rush C. Hawkins' brigade, the fifteenth such Federal unit to charge the Sunken Road that day, enjoyed no more success than its predecessors. Darkness shrouded the battlefield and at last the guns fell silent.

The hideous cries of the wounded, "weird, unearthly, terrible to hear and bear," echoed through the night. Burnside wrote orders to renew the assaults on December 14, wishing to lead them personally, but his subordinates dissuaded him from this suicidal scheme. On the evening of December 15-16, Burnside skillfully withdrew his army to Stafford Heights, dismantling his bridges behind him. The Fredericksburg Campaign had ended.

Grim arithmetic tells only a part of the Fredericksburg story. Lee suffered 5,300 casualties but inflicted more than twice that many losses on his opponent. Of the 12,600 Federal soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, almost two-thirds fell in front of the stone wall.

Despite winning in the most overwhelming tactical sense, however, the Battle of Fredericksburg proved to be a hollow victory for the Confederates. The limitless resources of the North soon rectified Burnside's losses in manpower and materiel. Lee, on the other hand, found it difficult to replenish either missing soldiers or needed supplies. The Battle of Fredericksburg, although profoundly discouraging to Union soldiers and the Northern populace, made no decisive impact on the war. Instead, it merely postponed the next "On to Richmond" campaign until the spring.

The Angel of Marye's Heights
Donald C. Pfanz

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1862, with the memories of Fredericksburg still fresh in his mind, Gen. Robert E. Lee wrote his wife lamenting the hardships of war: "What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world."

And yet, amid the killing, there were individuals whose kindness and compassion lifted the spirit and reminded soldiers of their common humanity. Richard Rowland Kirkland was one such individual. On Dec. 14, 1862, Kirkland risked his life to comfort soldiers who lay wounded in front of Marye's Heights. It is not uncommon for a soldier to risk his life for a friend. What makes Kirkland's story so compelling is that he risked his life to help his enemies.

Kirkland was born in 1843 on his father's farm near Flat Rock, S.C. Like many boys in the rural South, Kirkland grew up learning to shoot rifles and ride horses. An even-tempered, religious lad, he attended Flat Rock Baptist Church and obtained a rudimentary education. Kirkland's mother died when he was just 2 years old, leaving his father to raise five sons and a daughter by himself. Richard was the youngest boy, but he grew up fast. By 1861 he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed a lithe 150 pounds. A photograph taken of him at this time shows him as having a thin face, brown eyes, dark hair, and a neatly trimmed moustache.

As a young man growing up in the South, Kirkland followed the events leading to the Civil War with interest. On April 9, 1861, he enlisted in Company E of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. Three days later, South Carolina forces opened fire on a small United States garrison that had taken refuge inside Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and forced it to surrender. In response, President Abraham Lincoln called upon states loyal to the Union to suppress the rebellion. The war was on.

Kirkland and his comrades initially joined other state troops gathering at Charleston, but when Virginia later joined the Southern Confederacy, the 2nd South Carolina was sent north to protect the Old Dominion from Northern invasion. The war was still in its infancy then, and anyone in uniform was seen as a patriot and a hero.

As Kirkland's regiment moved north, it received an enthusiastic welcome wherever it went. "We was received with [a] warm reception," the eager young soldier wrote his brother from Petersburg, "& glee every where through the state." Everywhere they stopped, citizens welcomed them with food, hugs and flowers. It was heady stuff for a man not yet 19 years of age.

All too soon, however, war's reality set in. In July, Kirkland got his first taste of combat at Bull Run, outside Manassas. Other battles followed: Savage's Station, Malvern Hill, Antietam. Suddenly war did not seem like such a glorious endeavor. Kirkland, however, did his duty and did not miss a battle. By December 1862, he was a seasoned veteran.

The 2nd South Carolina Regiment was in the thick of the fighting at Fredericksburg. When Union troops launched their attacks against Marye's Heights on Dec. 13, Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw to reinforce Confederate troops fighting there. Kershaw led the 2nd South Carolina and the other units of his brigade across the plateau and into the Sunken Road below to join regiments from North Carolina and Georgia in repulsing the Union attacks.

The Confederates did their work well: By day's end 1,000 Union soldiers lay dead in front of the Heights. Seven thousand more had been wounded. Unable to move, most of the injured soldiers still lay between the lines when the sun rose the next day. No one could rescue them: to expose oneself on the plain even for an instant meant certain death. "The Yankees were literally piled in our front," remembered one South Carolinian, "dead and dying together, the living crying, water, water!"

The cries of one Union soldier were particularly piteous. After calling in vain for his friends to succor him, he cried out: "If my friends cannot give me water, will my enemies give me some?"

Richard Kirkland could not ignore such pleas. As a Christian, he may have remembered the Apostle Paul's injunction: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink." Bounding up the stairs of the nearby Stephens house, Kirkland asked Gen. Kershaw for permission to take water to his wounded enemies. Kershaw tried to talk him out of it. "Kirkland, don't you know that you would get a bullet through your head the moment you stepped over the wall?"

"Yes, sir," the young man replied, "I know that; but if you will let me, I am willing to try it." Kershaw could not refuse the noble request. Reluctantly, he gave Kirkland permission to go, trusting that God would protect him.

Kirkland hurried back down the stairs, but a moment later he returned. Kershaw assumed the well-intentioned sergeant had had second thoughts, but he was wrong: Kirkland simply wanted to perform his deed under a flag of truce. "General, can I show a white flag?" he inquired. Unfortunately, the general could not grant the request. The two sides were locked in combat; only the commanding general could negotiate a truce. Kirkland was undeterred. "All right," he replied, "I'll take the chances."

Borrowing canteens from several friends, Kirkland took a deep breath, jumped over the protective wall bordering the Sunken Road and dashed out onto the deadly plain. Bullets struck the mud around him, but he was not hit. Reaching the nearest soldier, Kirkland knelt down and, placing the man's head on his chest, poured the cooling liquid down the man's throat. He then took the soldier's knapsack and placed it under his head for a pillow, at the same time laying the man's overcoat across him for a blanket.

By now, the Union riflemen understood Kirkland's mission and had ceased firing at him. Some even cheered his bravery. For the next 90 minutes, Kirkland moved slowly about the field, giving aid to all he could reach. Who knows how many men benefited from his mercy?

As a result of his actions, Kirkland became known as "The Angel of Marye's Heights." He died just nine months later at the Battle of Chickamauga, but his deed at Fredericksburg was not forgotten. In 1965, local citizens led by Dr. Richard Nunn Lanier petitioned the state legislatures of Virginia and South Carolina to construct a monument to Kirkland's memory. Today it stands at the northeast corner of Mercer Street and Sunken Road, a rare testimony to man's humanity to man. Additional Sources:

www.fredericksburg.com
www.nps.gov
www.framery.com
www.spotsylvania.va.us
www.historypoint.org
www.army.mil
civilwarprints.com
www.multied.com
www.pbs.org
www.wesleyan.edu

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on June 29:
1577: Rubens, painter (426 years ago)
1805 Hiram Powers US sculptor (Greek Slave)
1858 George Washington Goethals engineer (built Panama Canal)
1861 William James Mayo surgeon/co-founder Mayo clinic in Minnesota
1863 James Harvey Robinson Ill, historian (Ordeal of Civilization)
1865 Shigechiyo Izumi achieved oldest authenticated age (120 y 237 d)
1865 William E Borah lawyer/(Sen-R-Id)
1869: Novelist Booth Tarkington
1886 James Van DerZee famous African
1900 Antoine Saint-Exup‚ry France, aviator/writer (Wind, Sand & Stars)
1901 Frieda Inescort Edinburgh Scotland, actress (Pride & Prejudice)
1901 Nelson Eddy actor/baritone (Great Duets with Jeanette MacDonald)
1907 Joan Davis St Paul Minn, actress (I Married Joan)
1909 Leroy Anderson US, composer (Syncopated Clock)
1911 Prince Bernhard Germany, (Constort to Queen Juliana of Netherlands)
1912 Jos‚ Pablo Moncayo Garcia Guadalajara M‚xico, composer (Huapango)
1914 Rafael Kubelik Bychory Czechoslovakia, conductor (Cornelia Farooli)
1916 Ruth Warwick St Joseph Mo, actress (All My Children, Peyton Place)
1919 Slim Pickens Kingsburg Calif, actor (Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles)
1923 Chou Wen-Chung Cheefoo China, composer (Mode of Shang)
1924 Ezra Laderman NYC, composer (Jacob & the Indians)
1925 Cara Williams Bkln NY, actress (Pete & Gladys, Cara Williams Show)
1928 Ian Bannen Scotland, actor (Eye of the Needle, Gorky Park)
1929 Johnny Ace Memphis, ballad singer (My Song)
1929 Peter George US, light middleweight (Olympic-gold-1952)
1930 Robert Evans US, actor/director (Best of Everything)
1933 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle actor (Keystone Comedies, Mabel & Fatty)
1934 Carl Levin (Sen-D-MI)
1936 David Jenkins US, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1960)
1936 Harmon Killebrew baseball player (Minnesota Twins)
1938 Billy Storm singer (Valiants-This is the Night)
1941 Kwame Toure (Stokley Carmichael) civil rights leader
1943 Roger Ruskin Spear rocker (Bonzo Dog Band-Urban Spaceman)
1944 Gary Busey Goose Creek Tx, actor (Buddy Holly Story, Star in Born)
1945 "Little" Eva Boyd rock vocalist (Locomotion)
1947 Richard Lewis comedian/actor (Anything But Love)
1948 Fred Grandy Sioux City Iowa, actor (Gopher-Love Boat)/(Rep-R-Iowa)
1949 Dan Dierdorf NFLer, sportscaster (Monday Night Football)
1959 Larry Parham 4th victim of NYC's Zodiac killer (1st to die)
1960 Sergey Kopylov USSR, cyclist (Olympic-gold-1980)
1963 Anne-Sophie Mutter Rheinfeldin Germany, violinist (Berlin Phil)
1964 Pepper Johnson NFL line backer (NY Giants)
1964 Stedman Pearson rocker (5 Star-Silk & Steel)
1967 Melora Hardin Houston Tx, actress (Family Tree, Best Times)
1972 Samantha Smith Houlton Mo, actress (Elizabeth-Lime Street)

Deaths which occurred on June 29:
1095 St. Ladislaus I, King of Hungary
1099 St. Urban II, Pope
1187 Sidon falls to Saladin
1192 Saladin takes Jaffa, again
1506 Martin Behaim, constructor of the first known world globe
1644 Pope Urban VIII
1833 English abolitionist William Wilberforce dies a mere three days after England abolishes slavery.
1852 Henry Clay the great compromiser, dies at 75
1923 General JC Gomez Venezuala's 1st VP, assassinated
1941 Ignace Paderewski Polish statesman pianist, dies in NY at 80
1959 A Cecil Snyder Chief Justice of Puerto Rico, dies at 51
1967 Jayne Mansfield actress, dies in a car crash at 34
1978 Bob Crane actor (Hogan's Heroes), murdered at 59
1979 Lowell George rocker (Mothers of Invention. Little Feat), dies at 34
1982 Henry King director, dies at 86
1986 Robert Drivas actor (Our Private World), dies at 47
1990 Irving Wallace author (Book of Lists, Peoples Almanac), dies at 74
2002 Singer Rosemary Clooney died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 74.

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 LINDSEY MARVIN NELSON SPRINGHILL LA.
[HIT NO PARA BEEP SEARCH NEG]
1966 JONES MURPHY N. BATON ROUGE LA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1967 HARDY WILLIAM H.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 96]
1968 OWEN TIMOTHY S. ROCHESTER NY.
1970 ALDERN DONALD D. SIOUX FALLS SD.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1236 Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon take Cordoba in Spain
1534 Jacques Cartier discovers Prince Edward Islands Canada
1540 English ex-chancellor Thomas Cromwell sentenced to death
1613 Shakespeare's Globe Theater burns down
1767 British passes Townshend Revenue Act levying taxes on America
1776 Mission Dolores founded by SF Bay
1776 Va state constitution adopted & Patrick Henry made governor
1854 Gadsden Purchase (parts of Az, NM) from Mexico for $10 million
1858 Treaty of Algun, China cedes north bank of Amur River to Russia
1862 Day 5 of the 7 Days-Battle of Savage's Station
1863 Lee orders his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, PN
1863 Very 1st First National Bank opens in Davenport, Iowa
1864 Grand Trunk Railway accident; 100 killed
1888 Professor Frederick Treves performs the first appendectomy in England.
1891 100ø F (San Fransisco, CA)
1897 Chicago beats Louisville 36-7 (baseball)
1899 Brazo River in Texas floods 12 miles wide causing $10 mil damage
1903 The British government officially protests Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
1913 Beginning of the 2nd Balkan War. Bulgaria defeats Greek/Serbian troops
1914 G Neujmin discovers asteroid #791 Ani
1916 Boeing aircraft flies for 1st time
1922 K Reinmuth discovers asteroid #979 Ilsewa
1927 1st flight from West Coast arrives in Hawaii
1929 1st high-speed jet wind tunnel completed Langley Field Ca
1931 109ø F (43ø C), Monticello, Florida (state record)
1936 Empire State Building emanates high definition TV-343 lines
1936 Pope Pius XI encyclical to US bishops "On motion pictures"
1939 Dixie Clipper completes 1st commercial plane flight to Europe
1940 US passes Alien Registration Act requiring Aliens to register
1941 DiMaggio extends hitting streak to 42 breaking Sisler's record
1945 Ruthenia, formerly in Czechoslovakia, becomes part of Ukrainian SSR
1946 British arrest 2,700 Jews in Palestine as alleged terrorists
1947 Yanks beat Senators 3-1 starting a 19 game win streak
1949 South Africa begins implementing apartheid; no mixed marriages
1949 US troops withdraw from Korea after WW II
1952 1st aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn-Oriskany
1954 Atomic Energy Comm voted against reinstating Dr J Robert Oppenheimer
1956 Charles Dumas, makes 1st high jump over 7' (2.13 m)-LA, Calif
1956 Federal interstate highway system act signed
1958 Brazil beats Sweden 5-2 in soccer's 6th World Cup at Stockholm
1959 Pope John XXIII encyclical "On truth, unity, & peace, in charity"
1960 KYA-AM in San Francisco changes call letters to KDBQ (for 2 weeks)
1961 Launch of Transit 4a, with 1st nuclear power supply (SNAP-3)
1962 1st flight Vickers (British Aerospace) VC-10 long-range airliner
1963 Beatles' 1st song "From Me to You" hits the UK charts
1964 1st draft of Star Trek's pilot "The Cage" released
1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed after 83-day filibuster in Senate
1965 USAF Capt Joseph Henry Engle reaches 85,530 m in X-15
1966 US bombs fuel storage facilities near N Vietnamese cities
1967 Israel removes barricades, re-unifying Jerusalem
1967 Keith Richards is sentenced to 1 year in jail on drugs charge
1969 1st Jewish worship service at White House
1970 US ends 2 month military offensive into Cambodia
1971 Soyuz 11 docks with Salyut 1 for 22 days
1972 Supreme Court-death penalty usually was "cruel & unusual punishment"
1972 USSR launches Prognoz 2 into earth orbit (549/200,000 km)
1975 20.57 cm (8.10") of rainfall, Litchville, N. Dakota (state 24-hr rec)
1976 Seychelles gains independence from Britain
1977 Supreme Court ruled out death penalty for rapists of adults
1978 VP Walter F Mondale begins trip to Mid-East
1982 Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended
1982 Israel invades Lebanon
1983 Challenger flies back to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
1984 USSR offers to start talking about banning SDI
1985 NASA launches Intelsat VA
1985 STS 51-F vehicle moves to the launch pad
1986 Boston Red Sox trade for Tom Seaver
1986 Sparky Anderson is 1st to win 600 games as manager in both leagues
1987 Yanks blow 11-4 lead but trailing 14-11 Dave Winfield's 8th inning grand slammer beats Toronto 15-14; Mattingly also grand slams
1989 Susan Lucci loses the daytime emmy for 10th straight year
1990 Marla Maples father sues the National Enquirer for $12M
1990 NY Mets tie their team career high 11 game win streak A's Dave Stewart no-hits the Blue Jays & Dodger's Fernando Valenzuela no-hits St Louis 6-0, 1st time no-hitters in both leagues
1999 A Turkish court convicted Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan of treason and sentenced him to death.
2000 An overloaded ship carrying almost 500 people, many fleeing sectarian violence in Indonesia's Maluku islands, sank, killing all but 10 known survivors.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Iowa : Independence Sunday (1776) - - - - - ( Sunday )
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Month

Religious Observances
RC, Ang, Luth : Solemnity of SS Peter & Paul, apostles

Religious History
1757 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote ina letter: 'Whatever we may undertake with a sincere desire to promote His glory, we may comfortably pursue. Nothing is trivial that is done for Him.'
1810 In Bradford, Massachusetts, the first U.S. missionary society was organized: the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
1875 The first 'holiness' conference opened at Keswick, England. Keswick conferences stress a non- charismatic, 'crisis' form of sanctification, in contrast to the older traditional view of Christian sanctification as being a lifelong 'process.'
1908 Birth of Cyrus H. Gordon, American Jewish archaeological scholar. Having taught Assyriology and Egyptology at Dropsie College in Philadelphia, his his technical writings include the 'Ugaritic Handbook' (1947).
1931 The Unevangelized Fields Mission was founded, in England. UFM missionaries today work primarily in Latin America, Europe and Africa, as well as in Haiti and Indonesia.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The minute a man is convinced that he is interesting, he isn`t."