September 27, 2023 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, listener Richard Hood takes us to the Battle of Fredericksburg and tells a story about compassion in the midst of America's deadliest war.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Indeed. Up next is a
listener's story from Valencia, California. This is a history story
that is fascinated listener Richard Hood for a long time
(00:31):
and he wanted to share it with us. Take it away, Richard.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You've probably heard that the darker the place, the brighter
any light appears. Well, I'd like to share with you
a story about a very dark place and a very
bright light, in fact, an angel of light known as
the Angel of Mary's Heights. It all happened back in
the month of December sixty two, and I'm talking about
(00:59):
eight six two, during our country's bloodiest war, the Civil War,
officially known as the War between the States, but more
poignantly as the Brother's War. One reason why it was
called the Brother's War is because the war actually did
pit in some cases brother against brother. You can imagine,
you know, if you have an older brother and he's
(01:21):
gone off to Afghanistan to fight. That's one thing. What
if he was going off to Afghanistan to fight you.
That kind of changes the whole familial situation. And in
the Civil War, the brother's war that not only happened
on occasion a father was sometimes pitted against son. So complicated.
(01:45):
So let me tell you more about this angel though,
because at the Battle of Fredericksburg there was an important
vantage point, a cliff top called Mary's Heights. The Southern
Confederate Army was wisely using it as a canon emplacement.
Below this cliff was a protective wall keeping the Northern
Army from gaining that cliff top. Hunkered down behind this wall,
(02:07):
protecting the stronghold, was one of many soldiers in this case,
a Confederate sergeant who had during America's bloodiest battle to
come anteet them, would later lose his life, but he
will survive this day, and a good thing for you,
because otherwise you won't survive either. So are you ready
to do a little pretending, ready to travel back to
(02:29):
your fateful day in time? Okay, Well here we go then,
So you're up before Reveley today. You've only had a thin,
dirty old blanket to cover her during the night, and
can't really sleep that well anyway. But the bugle does sound,
(02:50):
and you hear revee, and so you get up, splash
some water on your face to believe yourself of the
dust that covers everything and adds to the dry mount
off the battle that's to come. You look down at
your socks, filthy socks, barely holding together, and you put
on your boots that have holes in them, but you're
(03:11):
grateful because you actually have boots. You start to smell
the coffee that someone has started, and that's going to
be one of your sole pleasures today, and you're grateful
for that too. Little comforts are pretty big when that's
all you've got. You're in the army now, as they say,
and you're an infantryman in the Army of the Potomac,
(03:31):
the Northern Army of the Union. Abraham Lincoln is your president,
and you're facing off against the Confederate States of America,
the Southern States, whose president is Jefferson Davis. Want you
to take a moment and notice the coarseness of your
blue uniform. Also, I want to put on that rucksack
(03:52):
again today, and as you do so, you try and
adjust your shoulder straps to find an area of your
shoulders that hasn't been rubbed raw. Yet this is going
to be adjusted throughout the day. You're going to be
trading minor pains for greater bains. And you're also going
to notice that pack smells strongly of salt, and you
(04:12):
come to realize that's from your own sweat, and within
an hour of your pack's going to be soaked again,
just as will the back of your uniform. The enemy
sergeant behind that wall that you're approaching, he was promoted
on the battlefield, having survived the Battle of Chancellorsville, the
fabled Gettysburg and then Chickamaugua two, and his luck better
(04:36):
not run out today because it's tied directly to yours.
You're up against a real hero, the last thing you're
feeling like being, and a hero, not due to what
he's already done and survived, but what he will do
from the other side of that wall. He's hunkered down behind,
from behind that wall, separating today not just the quick
(04:59):
from the dead, but the quick from those not very
quietly or quickly dying. So on that suery note, let's
load up and start marching in the direction of that
enemy wall. It's not until around noon that the first
wave of Your assaults begin in front of that wall,
(05:20):
and no wave reaches as far as that wall. They
continue though, one after another, and they're also mowed down,
one after the other. The reports are not favorable. Your
comrades get as close as seventy five feet away from
that blasted wall, and that's it. It's going to be
(05:42):
your turn any minute. But before you go, you get
the chance to look around and see all the carnage
that has gone on before you, and you see how
it's likely to go for you. You see the killing
field between you and that wall, and you see a
bottleneck at a ditch that has only three possible crossable bridges,
(06:05):
and no matter which one you choose, it appears to
be nothing but a slaughter pick.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And you've been listening to Richard Hood And by the way,
he is a listener, as we said before, from Valencia, California,
and a heck of a storyteller, putting us in the spot,
in the time, in the context, which is so important.
As a storyteller, how we should always look at history.
No one knew what was going to happen in that
war when it started. No one knew it was going
(06:36):
to happen when they charged the next wall or the
next hill, except from what happened in plain sight from
the other guys who had just charged. And it's so true.
This Civil War, this war between the States, did pit
brother against brother, father against son. The Revolutionary War did
the same thing in large measure. Two, when we come back,
(06:58):
we're going to continue this fromark story, the story of
the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights here on our American story. Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:52):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we return to our American stories
and Richard Hood's story of an impactful moment in the
(08:15):
Civil War. When we last left off, Richard was taking
us back in time to the Battle of Fredericksburg, let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're exhausted from marching and fighting, and you're fighting off exhaustion.
Now you have to fight with absolutely no adrenaline left.
It's almost gone, and your mind is shifting gears down
to its most basic and primal functions, while the world
around you appears more and more like some kind of
(08:45):
outdoor insane asylum. Above the wall up on Mary's Heights,
the opposing Confederate canons begin to let loose, so when
you hear the order to charge, you're going to not
only face a continuous sheet of flame from frontal small
(09:06):
arms fire directed at you, but dismembering in deadly artillery
fire raining from above as well. And later one of
the Confederate artillery men would remark that not even a
chicken could live on that field. You're looking for some
way to increase the odds of your survival, and you
(09:28):
can't think of a thing, and the insensible amount of death,
along with its apparent utter randomness, sickens you. From what
you can see, you should be one of this day's
twelve thousand, six hundred casualties, and it doesn't look like
you're going to be evacuated should you become wounded, which
(09:49):
is likely, nor does it appear that you will receive
first staid, But instead it does appear that you're going
to lie there unattended, becoming just one more member of
the choir of mon. You can ask veterans of any war,
and they'll tell you that of all the horrors of war,
(10:10):
the psychologically worst may well be the tortured cries of
their brothers in arms, insufferable agony when there's nothing they
can do to come to their aid without exposing their
position or putting others in danger, or becoming just like them,
another screaming casualty. And whether it's medieval or modern weapons
(10:31):
used to cause this carnage, you will always hear cries
for one thing, for water. But this dehydration is caused
from blood loss. Now, as in any fight, your mouth
is dry, and at any moment it might become drier
still from the loss of your blood. And then, surprisingly
(10:53):
do you, despite its overwhelming odds and predictability, that indeed
happens with the realization of your fears having come upon you,
Pain and its companions of shock and immobility join forces
against you. You are now one casualty among the day's
eight thousand casualties. So you're asking yourself what was so
(11:18):
important about that wall? Why couldn't your commanders simply have
gone around it? As you drift in and out of consciousness,
whether half dreaming or awake, thoughts are distilled for you
and reduced to one thing and one desire, only for water.
(11:39):
Finally night comes on, and though your groans and poleas
are lost among the thousands of the others around you,
you have never felt more alone. No one is coming,
no one will be coming in time. So weary from
battle himself and desperate for rest, the Confederate sergeant has
(12:00):
been kept from sleep all this same night thanks to
yours and all the other pitiful, disturbing, and debilitating cries
of those not quite yet dead. By morning, he can't
take it any longer, and so this enemy soldier asked
permission to put you out of your misery. In both
(12:21):
his sides and your own sufferings, he's just stared at.
He stared at as if he's lost his senses or
has battle fatigue. Sniping at the wounded is just not done.
But he's no sniper, and what he's asking his commanders
for is permission to go over that wall and meet
you head on, to come not to silence you, but
(12:44):
to bring you water. His commanders tell him of the
bullets awaiting him on such a fool's errand making him
a casualty of well, either enemy or mistaken friendly fire.
And they tell him no, But he is totally aware
and totally determined and persistent. Yes. Most of the wounded
(13:05):
are like you, his enemy, or were now you seem
more like fellow mortals, just bleeding out and drying up.
He requests to carry a white handkerchief as a sign
of cease fire, and he keeps asking until he gets permission.
He seeks, but he is told that no handkerchief, no
(13:27):
flag of truce, will be allowed. He'll be on his own,
and he'll be all. You've got your last chance for tomorrow,
meet your sworn enemy. Richard Kirkland, Confederate Army sergeant, aged twenty.
The odds of help coming to you via Kirkland are
(13:50):
less than the odds were of being wounded. There are
just too many wounded sprawled in front of that wall.
And Kirkland has well, he's alone, and he has no
plan except for the filling of every canteen he can find,
and it seems time itself holds its breath, is over
the wall. He slips with you in that no man's
(14:12):
land between earthly consciousness and eternity. Eventually he does, indeed
stumble upon you, literally falls over you, and reaching down
to support your head, he gives you all he can
from the canteen's left. He takes off his jacket and
(14:33):
covers you with it. You try to raise your hand
and astonished thanks, but there's no need, as he can
read the gratitude in your eyes. Not a shot is
heard in that hour and a half that Kirkland spends
racing from soldier to soldier, as if in respectful awe
(14:53):
of what is happening and what he's risking. All that
is heard are the plane of cry for the water
that is now at least a possibility. He attends to
friend and foe alike, both sides Americans, both sides brothers
of a sort once again, even if only brothers of
(15:15):
the dust. Years later, some will claim it wasn't Kirkling,
but someone else, or many other someone else's. Others will
claim that he was sniped at, even wounded. But you
know better because you were there, Although you're a wonder
for the rest of your life. Why he did it?
(15:35):
What wasn't that was worth more to him than his
own physical life? How could he be so certain there
was something even more important than his own fears? What
or who puts that instinct or knowledge into people that
results in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven not just onto earth,
(15:58):
but overcoming hell on earth. You won't hear Kirkland's name
mentioned nowadays, but you see it doesn't matter. He's not
a household name because heroes don't do heroic things for
the fame. Their self lessness can inspire us to other,
if lesser acts of love. Love, we must remember, is
(16:20):
an action. While Kirkland indeed survived this day as a result,
you did as well. His eventual dying concern was still
for others, particularly his father, whom he wanted to know
that his son had died right. Perhaps more important is
living right day by day, and to do that you
(16:44):
and I must know what we are living for. Why
we were given life. This is everyone's foundation, so that
building up and out from that foundation brings meaning and
purpose to our lives. So that as much of our
lives as possible bring relief and life to others. You know,
(17:08):
you have to wonder why such stories of heroism create
such a unique response in us psychologically, physiologically, spiritually. It
seems to contradict a spirit less, self serving, survival of
the fittest and purposeless worldview. Perhaps the Brothers War was
(17:30):
but one act in a long play designed to help
us recognize and appreciate the true cost of love, of
redemption and reconciliation.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And a special thanks to Monty Montgomery for the production.
Richard Hood's story the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights story
here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on the show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Indeed. Up next is a
listener's story from Valencia, California. This is a history story
that is fascinated listener Richard Hood for a long time
(00:31):
and he wanted to share it with us. Take it away, Richard.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You've probably heard that the darker the place, the brighter
any light appears. Well, I'd like to share with you
a story about a very dark place and a very
bright light, in fact, an angel of light known as
the Angel of Mary's Heights. It all happened back in
the month of December sixty two, and I'm talking about
(00:59):
eight six two, during our country's bloodiest war, the Civil War,
officially known as the War between the States, but more
poignantly as the Brother's War. One reason why it was
called the Brother's War is because the war actually did
pit in some cases brother against brother. You can imagine,
you know, if you have an older brother and he's
(01:21):
gone off to Afghanistan to fight. That's one thing. What
if he was going off to Afghanistan to fight you.
That kind of changes the whole familial situation. And in
the Civil War, the brother's war that not only happened
on occasion a father was sometimes pitted against son. So complicated.
(01:45):
So let me tell you more about this angel though,
because at the Battle of Fredericksburg there was an important
vantage point, a cliff top called Mary's Heights. The Southern
Confederate Army was wisely using it as a canon emplacement.
Below this cliff was a protective wall keeping the Northern
Army from gaining that cliff top. Hunkered down behind this wall,
(02:07):
protecting the stronghold, was one of many soldiers in this case,
a Confederate sergeant who had during America's bloodiest battle to
come anteet them, would later lose his life, but he
will survive this day, and a good thing for you,
because otherwise you won't survive either. So are you ready
to do a little pretending, ready to travel back to
(02:29):
your fateful day in time? Okay, Well here we go then,
So you're up before Reveley today. You've only had a thin,
dirty old blanket to cover her during the night, and
can't really sleep that well anyway. But the bugle does sound,
(02:50):
and you hear revee, and so you get up, splash
some water on your face to believe yourself of the
dust that covers everything and adds to the dry mount
off the battle that's to come. You look down at
your socks, filthy socks, barely holding together, and you put
on your boots that have holes in them, but you're
(03:11):
grateful because you actually have boots. You start to smell
the coffee that someone has started, and that's going to
be one of your sole pleasures today, and you're grateful
for that too. Little comforts are pretty big when that's
all you've got. You're in the army now, as they say,
and you're an infantryman in the Army of the Potomac,
(03:31):
the Northern Army of the Union. Abraham Lincoln is your president,
and you're facing off against the Confederate States of America,
the Southern States, whose president is Jefferson Davis. Want you
to take a moment and notice the coarseness of your
blue uniform. Also, I want to put on that rucksack
(03:52):
again today, and as you do so, you try and
adjust your shoulder straps to find an area of your
shoulders that hasn't been rubbed raw. Yet this is going
to be adjusted throughout the day. You're going to be
trading minor pains for greater bains. And you're also going
to notice that pack smells strongly of salt, and you
(04:12):
come to realize that's from your own sweat, and within
an hour of your pack's going to be soaked again,
just as will the back of your uniform. The enemy
sergeant behind that wall that you're approaching, he was promoted
on the battlefield, having survived the Battle of Chancellorsville, the
fabled Gettysburg and then Chickamaugua two, and his luck better
(04:36):
not run out today because it's tied directly to yours.
You're up against a real hero, the last thing you're
feeling like being, and a hero, not due to what
he's already done and survived, but what he will do
from the other side of that wall. He's hunkered down behind,
from behind that wall, separating today not just the quick
(04:59):
from the dead, but the quick from those not very
quietly or quickly dying. So on that suery note, let's
load up and start marching in the direction of that
enemy wall. It's not until around noon that the first
wave of Your assaults begin in front of that wall,
(05:20):
and no wave reaches as far as that wall. They
continue though, one after another, and they're also mowed down,
one after the other. The reports are not favorable. Your
comrades get as close as seventy five feet away from
that blasted wall, and that's it. It's going to be
(05:42):
your turn any minute. But before you go, you get
the chance to look around and see all the carnage
that has gone on before you, and you see how
it's likely to go for you. You see the killing
field between you and that wall, and you see a
bottleneck at a ditch that has only three possible crossable bridges,
(06:05):
and no matter which one you choose, it appears to
be nothing but a slaughter pick.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And you've been listening to Richard Hood And by the way,
he is a listener, as we said before, from Valencia, California,
and a heck of a storyteller, putting us in the spot,
in the time, in the context, which is so important.
As a storyteller, how we should always look at history.
No one knew what was going to happen in that
war when it started. No one knew it was going
(06:36):
to happen when they charged the next wall or the
next hill, except from what happened in plain sight from
the other guys who had just charged. And it's so true.
This Civil War, this war between the States, did pit
brother against brother, father against son. The Revolutionary War did
the same thing in large measure. Two, when we come back,
(06:58):
we're going to continue this fromark story, the story of
the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights here on our American story. Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
(07:52):
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we return to our American stories
and Richard Hood's story of an impactful moment in the
(08:15):
Civil War. When we last left off, Richard was taking
us back in time to the Battle of Fredericksburg, let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're exhausted from marching and fighting, and you're fighting off exhaustion.
Now you have to fight with absolutely no adrenaline left.
It's almost gone, and your mind is shifting gears down
to its most basic and primal functions, while the world
around you appears more and more like some kind of
(08:45):
outdoor insane asylum. Above the wall up on Mary's Heights,
the opposing Confederate canons begin to let loose, so when
you hear the order to charge, you're going to not
only face a continuous sheet of flame from frontal small
(09:06):
arms fire directed at you, but dismembering in deadly artillery
fire raining from above as well. And later one of
the Confederate artillery men would remark that not even a
chicken could live on that field. You're looking for some
way to increase the odds of your survival, and you
(09:28):
can't think of a thing, and the insensible amount of death,
along with its apparent utter randomness, sickens you. From what
you can see, you should be one of this day's
twelve thousand, six hundred casualties, and it doesn't look like
you're going to be evacuated should you become wounded, which
(09:49):
is likely, nor does it appear that you will receive
first staid, But instead it does appear that you're going
to lie there unattended, becoming just one more member of
the choir of mon. You can ask veterans of any war,
and they'll tell you that of all the horrors of war,
(10:10):
the psychologically worst may well be the tortured cries of
their brothers in arms, insufferable agony when there's nothing they
can do to come to their aid without exposing their
position or putting others in danger, or becoming just like them,
another screaming casualty. And whether it's medieval or modern weapons
(10:31):
used to cause this carnage, you will always hear cries
for one thing, for water. But this dehydration is caused
from blood loss. Now, as in any fight, your mouth
is dry, and at any moment it might become drier
still from the loss of your blood. And then, surprisingly
(10:53):
do you, despite its overwhelming odds and predictability, that indeed
happens with the realization of your fears having come upon you,
Pain and its companions of shock and immobility join forces
against you. You are now one casualty among the day's
eight thousand casualties. So you're asking yourself what was so
(11:18):
important about that wall? Why couldn't your commanders simply have
gone around it? As you drift in and out of consciousness,
whether half dreaming or awake, thoughts are distilled for you
and reduced to one thing and one desire, only for water.
(11:39):
Finally night comes on, and though your groans and poleas
are lost among the thousands of the others around you,
you have never felt more alone. No one is coming,
no one will be coming in time. So weary from
battle himself and desperate for rest, the Confederate sergeant has
(12:00):
been kept from sleep all this same night thanks to
yours and all the other pitiful, disturbing, and debilitating cries
of those not quite yet dead. By morning, he can't
take it any longer, and so this enemy soldier asked
permission to put you out of your misery. In both
(12:21):
his sides and your own sufferings, he's just stared at.
He stared at as if he's lost his senses or
has battle fatigue. Sniping at the wounded is just not done.
But he's no sniper, and what he's asking his commanders
for is permission to go over that wall and meet
you head on, to come not to silence you, but
(12:44):
to bring you water. His commanders tell him of the
bullets awaiting him on such a fool's errand making him
a casualty of well, either enemy or mistaken friendly fire.
And they tell him no, But he is totally aware
and totally determined and persistent. Yes. Most of the wounded
(13:05):
are like you, his enemy, or were now you seem
more like fellow mortals, just bleeding out and drying up.
He requests to carry a white handkerchief as a sign
of cease fire, and he keeps asking until he gets permission.
He seeks, but he is told that no handkerchief, no
(13:27):
flag of truce, will be allowed. He'll be on his own,
and he'll be all. You've got your last chance for tomorrow,
meet your sworn enemy. Richard Kirkland, Confederate Army sergeant, aged twenty.
The odds of help coming to you via Kirkland are
(13:50):
less than the odds were of being wounded. There are
just too many wounded sprawled in front of that wall.
And Kirkland has well, he's alone, and he has no
plan except for the filling of every canteen he can find,
and it seems time itself holds its breath, is over
the wall. He slips with you in that no man's
(14:12):
land between earthly consciousness and eternity. Eventually he does, indeed
stumble upon you, literally falls over you, and reaching down
to support your head, he gives you all he can
from the canteen's left. He takes off his jacket and
(14:33):
covers you with it. You try to raise your hand
and astonished thanks, but there's no need, as he can
read the gratitude in your eyes. Not a shot is
heard in that hour and a half that Kirkland spends
racing from soldier to soldier, as if in respectful awe
(14:53):
of what is happening and what he's risking. All that
is heard are the plane of cry for the water
that is now at least a possibility. He attends to
friend and foe alike, both sides Americans, both sides brothers
of a sort once again, even if only brothers of
(15:15):
the dust. Years later, some will claim it wasn't Kirkling,
but someone else, or many other someone else's. Others will
claim that he was sniped at, even wounded. But you
know better because you were there, Although you're a wonder
for the rest of your life. Why he did it?
(15:35):
What wasn't that was worth more to him than his
own physical life? How could he be so certain there
was something even more important than his own fears? What
or who puts that instinct or knowledge into people that
results in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven not just onto earth,
(15:58):
but overcoming hell on earth. You won't hear Kirkland's name
mentioned nowadays, but you see it doesn't matter. He's not
a household name because heroes don't do heroic things for
the fame. Their self lessness can inspire us to other,
if lesser acts of love. Love, we must remember, is
(16:20):
an action. While Kirkland indeed survived this day as a result,
you did as well. His eventual dying concern was still
for others, particularly his father, whom he wanted to know
that his son had died right. Perhaps more important is
living right day by day, and to do that you
(16:44):
and I must know what we are living for. Why
we were given life. This is everyone's foundation, so that
building up and out from that foundation brings meaning and
purpose to our lives. So that as much of our
lives as possible bring relief and life to others. You know,
(17:08):
you have to wonder why such stories of heroism create
such a unique response in us psychologically, physiologically, spiritually. It
seems to contradict a spirit less, self serving, survival of
the fittest and purposeless worldview. Perhaps the Brothers War was
(17:30):
but one act in a long play designed to help
us recognize and appreciate the true cost of love, of
redemption and reconciliation.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And a special thanks to Monty Montgomery for the production.
Richard Hood's story the Angel of Saint Mary's Heights story
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.