\r\nThough his bold appearance must have astonished the soldiers on the opposite side of the field, no one fired at him. Some witnesses, in fact, later attested that the Union troops cheered Kirkland as they grasped his act of mercy. At least one report tells of another Confederate soldier running more canteens to Kirkland and helping him give water to the wounded."} 57:{"type":"p","text":"Some investigators have recently raised doubts as to whether this act of compassion took place. They wonder if the passage of years may have embellished the “Angel” story. However, the bulk of the evidence demonstrates that a soldier in gray did indeed deliver water to the thirsty casualties in blue, and that this man was Richard Kirkland."} 58:{"type":"p","text":"The poet Walt Whitman, who was then working as a nurse in a Washington hospital, wrote that several wounded soldiers in his care spoke of Confederates giving water to the wounded. Others from Kirkland’s outfit later told of his brave deed of mercy."} 59:{"type":"p","text":"Historian Mac Wyckoff spent years studying the battle. After thoroughly investigated firsthand evidence concerning the story of Richard Kirkland, he concluded that while some details in past accounts were wrong, the overall narrative was right on target. Richard Kirkland deserved his title as the “Angel of Marye’s Heights.”"} 5a:{"type":"img","width":"1920","height":"1280","href":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Something_Original","src":"https://img.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2026/07/01/id6056128-Richard_Rowland_Kirkland_Memorial.jpg","text":"A monument to Sgt. Richard Rowland Kirkland stands in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park where he brought water to Union soldiers. (Something Original/

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