1863Who was known as 'The Angel of Marye's Heights' during the American Civil War?
Richard Rowland Kirkland, known as 'The Angel of Marye's Heights,' was a Confederate sergeant from Kershaw County, South Carolina, who gained lasting fame on the battlefield at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Amid the carnage of December 13, 1862, Kirkland risked his life to bring water and comfort to wounded Union soldiers stranded between enemy lines, a rare act of compassion during one of the Civil War's bloodiest confrontations. His selflessness became legendary, and in 1965—a century after the war—a bronze and granite monument by Felix de Weldon was unveiled at the Fredericksburg Battlefield, dedicated to "national unity and the brotherhood of man." Canteens still appear at its base, a tribute to one young soldier’s extraordinary humanity.
