Narrator: After nearly 2 years of fighting and countless dead,
the American civil war is at a stalemate.
[ Shouting, grunting ]
Many people in the north were concerned
they were not winning the war.
Narrator: Desperate for victory, Abraham Lincoln endorses
a bold military maneuver that will send union troops
on a mission unlike any other.
The federal army's literally having
to rewrite the rules of war.
Narrator: At the battle of fredericksburg,
men like second lieutenant John Adams
will be asked to do what no American soldier
has ever done before.
Fredericksburg was a day of many military firsts.
Get down, men!
Narrator: He'll take part in the first river crossing
under enemy fire in American military history.
The idea of putting men on boats
and sending them across the river under fire,
this is a brand-new plan.
So it's very innovative.
Narrator: And he'll battle from house to house
as one of the first Americans
to ever experience urban warfare.
The street fighting that takes place in fredericksburg
has never taken place in American warfare before.
Nobody had written a textbook on how to fight
in the city at that point in time.
So this was all new to everybody.
Narrator: The unprecedented tactics lead Adams
into the heart of the biggest battle
of the entire civil war.
It was a killing field from beginning to end.
[ Shouting ]
Captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
narrator: By the late fall of 1862,
there's no end in sight to a war that's tearing the nation apart.
In September, at the battle of antietam,
the bloodiest day in American history,
union forces manage to stop a rebel invasion of Maryland.
[ Shouting, gunfire ]
Fire!
Narrator: But before they could deliver a death blow
to the army of Robert e. Lee,
union commanders allowed the rebels
to slip back into Virginia.
It wasn't a very decisive victory.
An opportunity to destroy Lee's army had been lost.
Narrator: Now, 2 months later, President Lincoln faces
intense pressure to end the fighting.
For the first time, a worried public is questioning
his ability to win the war.
If you're a person in the north at that point,
looking at the situation,
you would have seen that, despite many battles,
hundreds of thousands of casualties,
that the armies were virtually
where they had been one year earlier, in 1861.
Rable: Well, I think the man at the top is always blamed.
I think people were blaming Lincoln.
Anybody picking up a civil war newspaper
after a battle would see column after column of the dead,
missing and wounded.
Lincoln needs a victory in the worst sort of way.
Narrator: Lincoln's hopes for victory now rest with men
like 21-year-old John Adams.
He's one of the thousands of union soldiers
who have been ordered south, into Virginia.
Mackowski: He's a second lieutenant at this point.
So he's worked his way up a little bit.
He's got the respect of his peers.
He's got the respect of his superiors.
And, uh, he's there to do his duty.
He's there to do his job.
Narrator: Adams and his men are part of a new plan of attack
drawn up by union general ambrose burnside.
Boys doin' well?
After marching thousands of troops
to the north bank of the rappahannock river,
burnside plans for them to cross near the town of fredericksburg,
then push on toward the confederate capitol of Richmond.
The union army's on the banks of the rappahannock river
because burnside is intending
to make a mad dash at Richmond
and capture the confederate capital.
The reason he wants to do that is because
attacking Richmond will force Lee into battle.
And burnside can use his overwhelming numbers
and resources to overwhelm the confederate army.
Narrator: It's a bold plan.
But it's hit a major snag.
Union troops lack critical materials
needed to carry it out.
Burnside realized that, in order to cross
the rappahannock river at fredericksburg,
he was going to need Bridges.
The confederates very inconveniently had destroyed
all the existing Bridges earlier in the war.
So he planned to have Bridges sent to him
from Washington D.C., not... not permanent Bridges
but pontoon Bridges, floating Bridges.
Because of the bureaucratic slowness
that plagues the union army,
those bridging materials don't get sent.
Narrator: Until the bridging material arrives,
the federal troops are stuck on the north bank of the river.
And as each day passes,
the confederates have more time to mount a defense.
They have lost the element of surprise.
Narrator: Near the banks of the rappahannock,
the men of the 17th Mississippi have already started
turning the town into a fortress.
You think they'll get across?
[ Sighs ] I doubt it.
Them yanks don't really have the, uh, stomach for fightin'.
Yeah. They fought like hell in Maryland.
Yeah. Well, Maryland was different,
had their backs against the wall up there.
But, down here, they just don't know what they're fightin' for.
Mackowski: When the confederate army fortify their positions,
they're able to take advantage of hedge rows,
of fences, of stacks of wood.
- You ready? - Let's do it.
Pfanz: Lee was always outnumbered.
Fredericksburg, he'd be outnumbered
by roughly 50 percent.
He had to somehow improve the odds in his favor
and conserve his manpower.
And the way you conserve men is to protect them.
So they essentially took a good position
and made it even stronger.
Narrator: The defensive plan at fredericksburg includes
sending sharpshooters to dig rifle pits
into the riverbank at the edge of town.
Pfanz: Their orders were to watch the river,
report any movements of the enemy,
and, if the enemy did try to cross,
to delay them as long as possible.
Basically, they're acting as the advanced eyes
and ears of the confederate army.
Narrator: One of the men keeping close watch
on the river is Robert Moore,
a 24-year-old private
from Marshall county, Mississippi.
Mackowski: Moore and his colleagues
had a reputation for being excellent shots.
They were known as the confederate hornets
because they could sting from such a distance.
So guys like Moore,
who are down there on the front lines,
are there because they're the ones best equipped
to be that first line of defense.
Narrator: As days of waiting for an attack
turn into weeks, soldiers on both sides start watching
for a different kind of river crossing.
The rappahannock river's only about 400 yards wide
at fredericksburg.
And so soldiers who were posted on either bank
are able to trade with each other.
Rable: They rigged up sailboats to cross the river
to exchange these items.
And when the wind was right, you'd set your boat afloat.
And if you were lucky, uh, it would make it
across the river to the other side.
Rable: Confederates, of course, could supply tobacco,
and the federals could supply coffee.
So there were a lot of coffee and tobacco exchanges.
Hey, reb!
Why don't you ask for money instead of coffee?
You'd buy yourself a real uniform.
No point. Don't need a uniform to shoot hogs!
And they also, shall we say, exchanged words,
or what we would today call trash talk.
Some of the banter back and forth across the river
was very good-natured.
Uh, sometimes it was very, uh, uh, ill-natured.
Well, if y'all are still there next week,
bring more papers.
Papers?
I thought you crackers couldn't read.
Of course we can.
How do you spell manassas again?
Were there two ns?
Narrator: For President Lincoln, news of the union delay
in crossing the rappahannock is agonizing.
Just weeks earlier, on September 22, 1862,
he announced his plans to abolish slavery.
Pfanz: It was at that time that Abraham Lincoln issued
his preliminary emancipation proclamation,
which stated that, come January 1st of 1863,
that all slaves would be freed.
Narrator: Now more than ever, he needs to be seen
as a strong leader who can end the war
and make good on his historic promise.
Mackowski: He's got this huge moral imperative
that he has reframed the entire war with.
If Lincoln doesn't get a win on the battlefield,
the emancipation proclamation
is gonna seem like the last gasp
of the dying union effort.
Narrator: Union soldiers like John Adams
are in full support of Lincoln's fight
against slavery.
Adams comes from an area of Massachusetts
that is very involved with the abolitionist movement.
So he thinks that the whole slavery crusade
is actually a pretty good idea,
"about time."
Pfanz: He would argue that the issue of slavery had been
a canker within the United States.
It had been the source of almost all its troubles,
internal troubles, uh, since the very beginning.
And there was no point in fighting and winning a war
if you're going to leave that canker there.
Narrator: But as Adams is about to discover,
not everyone in the union agrees with his position.
Aren't you supposed to be on picket duty?
I don't think those rebs are goin' anywhere soon.
What the hell are you doin' out here?
Ain't that the sergeant's job?
I thought this would lift your spirits.
It's from your folks.
- I think it might be food. - Give it here.
The emancipation proclamation
was controversial in the country,
and it was especially controversial in the armies.
Narrator: So controversial that some soldiers
are getting clothes sent from home
to help them take a drastic step.
Rable: A number of soldiers would say,
"we came out here to fight for the union,
not to fight for black people."
They said it less politely than that,
but you... you get the point.
You in a better mood?
Hey, Nelson!
Nelson!
It's desertion.
You'll be hanged or shot.
Maybe. But if I stay here
and try and cross that river tomorrow, I'm a dead man.
- That's for sure. - You don't know that.
You wanna die for the slaves?
Be my guest.
But not me.
Most of these guys had signed up
because they're off to preserve the union.
That was the original call.
So the emancipation proclamation is,
in some ways, a big bait and switch for these guys.
Suddenly reframing the war as a war against slavery
is not what these guys had signed up for.
Narrator: Though facing division, after days of waiting,
they finally receive the equipment needed
for bridging the rappahannock.
The attack on fredericksburg can finally begin.
In the early hours of December 11th,
union engineers put the plan into action,
making their way to the riverbank
under the cover of darkness.
Under ideal conditions, engineers can put together
a bridge in just a couple of hours.
But, unfortunately, the engineers
are not gonna be working under ideal conditions.
Narrator: On the opposite bank,
confederate troops have had plenty of time to dig in.
They're ready for an attack.
Lee had directed that if the federals
started crossing at any point along the river,
the troops in that sector were supposed to fire
two signal shots to alert the rest of the army.
[ Two gunshots ]
That's the signal.
Moore and his colleagues
all recognized that Cannon boom
as the signal to open up on these engineers.
Narrator: The fierce battle that's about to unfold
will make history...
Not only as the largest troop engagement
of the entire civil war,
but as an astounding leap
in the evolution of American warfare itself.
Narrator: In early December 1862,
general Robert e. Lee is desperate to repel
a daring union advance on fredericksburg
that could threaten the confederate capital.
He's counting on men like Robert Moore,
a rebel sharpshooter from Mississippi,
to hold off the union troops for as long as possible.
Mackowski: They've been ordered to delay the union crossing.
That's important because half of
the confederate army is there in fredericksburg.
But the other half is stretched out
for some 25 miles to the south.
So if Moore and the rest of the sharpshooters
can delay the union crossing,
Robert e. Lee has the time to consolidate his army
and better defend the city of fredericksburg.
Pfanz: As soon as it was light enough to see their targets,
the mississippians opened fire on the engineers.
[ Gunfire, shouting ]
They take heavy casualties. There's also casualties
among the infantry supporting the engineers.
And, of course, this is extremely discouraging.
Narrator: As dawn breaks on the rappahannock,
the effort to bridge the river has failed.
The 17th Mississippi are able to put up such effective fire
that the engineers refuse to go back out.
And so, suddenly, the union high command
is faced with this problem.
Narrator: Union general burnside must now
make a difficult decision...
Abandon the attack or find a bold new way
to cross the river.
Pfanz: Burnside, now becoming desperate,
resorts to a very unusual and dangerous alternative.
And that is to send troops
across the river in those pontoon boats.
Rable: The plan is to send these troops over in the boats,
clear out the town as best as you can,
build the pontoon Bridges
and then cross the rest of your troops.
Narrator: Adams and his men volunteer
to get in one of the first boats
to try and make the dangerous crossing.
Get down, men.
Mackowski: The fact that these men are getting in these boats
and going across the river under fire is incredible
because it has never happened
in American military history before.
This plan is brand-new. It's unprecedented.
Stay down!
If you were a man in one of those boats,
your adrenaline would have been running high.
Your heart's pounding.
Bullets are now whizzing around you,
striking the water beside you,
striking the boats that you're in,
striking people who are in the boat with you.
[ Men shouting ]
Faster! Faster!
Men! Come on!
[ Shouts ]
[ Gunfire continues ]
When Adams is in that boat,
he and soldiers just like him are looking across the far bank.
And, at 400 yards,
that's probably seeming like an eternity.
It had to be absolutely terrifying and confusing.
Look it. They're still comin' across.
Damn Yankees. Stupid as they look.
Return fire!
They're getting close!
Fall back, boys! Pull the tail!
Pfanz: The Mississippi troops, when they saw
the union troops coming across the river,
fell back to the town of fredericksburg.
Charlie, come on!
And that's really where they're going to make their stand.
Forward!
Narrator: John Adams and his comrades
have just taken part in the first
opposed river crossing in the nation's history.
But their fight has barely begun.
Move, men! Move! Getting across the river
was just the very first step.
Now that they're across the river,
their job is to push the confederates back
from the water's edge far enough that the engineers
can complete their work in constructing those Bridges.
If they can't flush the defenders out,
it means burnside's crossing is gonna be further delayed,
if not stymied altogether.
Stay low! Stay low!
Mackowski: When Adams and his colleagues
get to the far side of the river,
they're given the black flag order,
which means they don't have to take prisoners.
They don't have to show mercy.
Imagine if you've been shot at for the last 400 yards.
You're probably not feeling very compassionate.
Go, go, go.
Damn Yankees made it across! Come on!
- Come on! - Robert!
The confederates who have been doing the sharpshooting
suddenly find themselves facing a very angry,
very determined, very aggressive federal force.
Fixed bayonets!
[ Gunfire ]
Narrator: John Adams, alongside a few hundred
other union troops,
has just participated in the first river
crossing under fire in American military history.
When Adams and his colleagues
get to the far side of the river,
first thing they do is form up into companies
so that they've got some cohesion to make their attack.
Narrator: Joined by several other regiments,
he must now enter the town of fredericksburg,
where he'll face another unprecedented challenge.
They're not really sure where the enemy is.
They're certainly not sure how strong the enemy is.
And so they face a very difficult situation.
Narrator: After delaying the yankee crossing for hours,
rebel sharpshooters like private Robert Moore
have fallen back into fredericksburg.
Moore and his colleagues are hunkering down behind woodpiles.
They're hiding in backyards, taking advantage of fence lines
and contesting, literally, every foot on those streets.
And they're gonna be fighting street by street,
block by block, house by house.
Not yet.
Now! [ Gunfire ]
Take cover, men!
Pfanz: They come under this blistering fire.
Everywhere they turned, bullets were coming at them...
From the front, from the side, from the rear.
One person said it was like getting a barrel load of bullets
thrown at him.
[ Gunfire continues ]
The street fighting that takes place in fredericksburg
has never taken place in American warfare before.
Nobody had written a textbook on how to fight
in a city at that point in time.
So this was all new to everybody.
They do not have training, uh,
for what we would today call urban warfare,
no training at all.
Forward!
Fall back.
Fall back! Fall back!
Oh!
Confederates might get driven from one house,
and they scramble to the next.
Or they'd line up behind a hedge row
and set traps and ambushes.
And so it's really warfare on the fly.
[ Shouting, gunfire ]
It's all clear!
Moore and his colleagues have to fall back
under this unrelenting pressure as more and more federals
are starting to come across the river.
They're right behind us!
But they're able to keep making defensive stands.
[ Gunfire continues ]
So they're able to really delay
that federal advance significantly.
Don't miss.
[ Gunfire continues ]
[ Hammer clicks ]
Adams!
We need to get in that house. Yes, sir.
The federals quickly realize
that the traditional mode of battle isn't gonna work.
They can't stay together as a unit.
And so they really break down into ones and twos.
You and you, you come with me.
[ Gunfire ]
[ Gunfire continues ]
It's up to Adams and his colleagues
to establish a beachhead
so more federals can get over.
- Come on. - Fire! Fire!
[ Gunshot ]
The only way they're gonna do that
is literally to go room by room
through these houses to ferret out the confederates.
Go, go!
Hey, get in the house.
Move, move.
They're going to be rushing into buildings,
killing or disabling anybody they find there.
[ Grunts ]
This experience was something that no other soldier in america
had really experienced before.
Narrator: While the battle in town rages,
on nearby marye's heights,
a Ridge overlooking fredericksburg,
the confederates are working to strengthen
an already imposing defensive position.
Lee is now massing his troops on the heights
behind the town to make a coherent defense
when burnside does finally cross his main army.
So it allows the confederate army
to really fortify and get ready for any federal incursion.
Narrator: Within a few hours, the growing union force
has occupied large sections of the town.
Once they're in those buildings,
they can't really go any farther.
So the best that the 19th Massachusetts can do
is to hold its ground.
Narrator: For Adams and his men,
it's been a remarkable day of military firsts.
Well, the 19th Massachusetts
had to cross the river that day under fire.
They had to push into town.
They had to engage in street fighting,
for which they had not been trained.
And I think you... If you rate the performance
of the 19th Massachusetts that day,
you would say they earned their a.
Narrator: As daylight fades on December 11th,
the mississippians slip away
to the safety of the high ground.
Though in retreat, the small troop of rebels
has achieved a huge objective.
Rable: They not only achieved the objective,
they went beyond the objective.
They were able to hold off the federal crossing longer
than anybody could have reasonably expected.
The crossing was supposed to have been made roughly at dawn.
And it wasn't made by the entire army
until dawn the following day.
So, uh, in its effects,
the mississippians' resistance, uh, cost burnside a full day.
And that becomes absolutely crucial
as the rest of the battle unfolds.
Now Lee is gonna be at full strength
when the federals make their assaults.
That's possible because the sharpshooters
had bought that day's worth of delay.
Narrator: By nightfall, the union foothold is secure.
The federal army's in the city
as occupiers, waiting.
And I can imagine the tension just building for those guys,
waiting to figure out what's gonna happen next.
Pfanz: Crossing the river had been tough.
Seizing the town had been even tougher.
But the toughest task lay ahead.
That was seizing the heights beyond the town.
Narrator: The men know they must now drive a large
rebel army from a heavily reinforced position
that lies to the west of the town.
Pfanz: In order to do that, they're going to have
to move across an open plain,
300 or 400 yards wide,
without any cover whatsoever and attack
perhaps the strongest natural defense position
that Robert e. Lee would ever hold during the war.
Someone's gotta go get him off those heights.
It's guys like Adams thinking, "eh, that's gonna be me."
Pfanz: I do think there was, in the backs of...
Of most of their minds, this idea that, uh,
that "tomorrow, we're going to have a big battle.
"And... and it doesn't look good for us.
"Many of us are going to die.
This might be my last day on earth."
Narrator: The battle of fredericksburg,
the largest engagement of soldiers
in the civil war, continues.
After thousands of federal troops
have crossed the rappahannock,
the assault on the main confederate force
is set to begin.
If union troops can prevail, they can push south,
seize the rebel capital of Richmond
and perhaps finally bring the war to an end.
The union has planned a two-pronged strike
to crack the confederate line.
As some troops hit the rebel right, John Adams
and others will attack a section of the line
called marye's heights.
The majority of federal troops, at this point,
are not very optimistic about their chances.
They recognize how strong that position is
the confederates have atop marye's heights.
[ Men shouting, clamoring ]
Union troops have to charge across several hundred yards
of open ground just to reach the confederate position.
Once there, they're going to encounter confederates
who were posted very strongly in massed ranks
behind a stone wall.
If you survived all that,
then you had the confederate artillery,
which was on the high ground behind the stone wall.
Those guns were able to fire down
over the heads of their own men
and scour the ground in front of them.
So any way you look at it, it was a killing ground.
Narrator: One of the rebels steeling himself for the fight
to come is Richard kirkland,
a 19-year-old sergeant from south Carolina.
It's time.
We're gonna go closer to that rock wall.
Come on.
What kirkland will do before the day is out
will long be remembered as one of the most remarkable
acts of the entire civil war.
The first union assault on the heights
begins just before noon.
[ Gunfire ]
And because they couldn't stretch their lines
out over a great distance,
they had to go in in waves of attack,
almost like waves coming up a beach.
Narrator: When Adams and the men of the 19th Massachusetts
join the battle, several desperate charges
have already failed.
Rable: Did they have any reason to believe
that their attacks would be successful?
Well, there was a rumor
that some troops had been pulled out
of the confederate line,
perhaps that they were weakening the line.
Those rumors proved to be false.
Mackowski: By the time Adams and the 19th Massachusetts begin
to advance up that field,
they're having to navigate
across this landscape of scattered bodies.
Survivors are clinging to their pant legs saying,
"don't go. Don't go. It's a suicide mission."
It's a very demoralizing scene to go into,
knowing that you are now going to be
the one sent into that meat grinder.
[ Gunfire, explosions ]
Forward, men!
The storm of fire and lead
that they have to face is incredible.
[ Men shouting, screaming ]
As they move forward,
they're going to simply be massacred by that fire,
so much so that they're actually going to fall back.
Once they reform, they're going to move forward yet again.
Narrator: Amid the smoke and chaos,
the men of the 19th
try to keep track of their regimental flags.
[ Shouting, explosions ]
Battle flags were especially important
because that was a visual cue for the men,
so they could see where their unit was,
so they knew whether to advance, whether to retreat,
where they were supposed to be.
Rable: Perhaps even more so, it was a source of identity,
a source of pride.
Flags had bullet holes in them.
Flags had blood on them.
Those flags represented sacrifice.
And they were extremely important to the men.
Narrator: As the day grinds on,
not a single union soldier reaches the stone wall.
Despite the loss of thousands of troops, yankee commanders
keep throwing fresh regiments at marye's heights.
[ Gunfire continues ]
That's the seventh time they've come already.
[ Men shouting ]
Rable: The reason that burnside continues
to order the troops to attack
is that he believes some progress is being made.
This is, of course, a classic mistake
of reinforcing failure.
The confederates have some 40 to 45 artillery pieces
on the top of marye's heights.
They've got the field in front of them covered so well
that the chief of confederate artillery says that,
"when I open on that field with these Cannon,
a chicken couldn't live on it."
Narrator: For the union troops,
it's looking like a lost cause.
[ Gunfire continues ]
Color bearer after color bearer goes down.
A total of eight color bearers
are shot as the unit is trying to advance.
[ Men shouting, screaming ]
As one of these men fell, he handed the flag
to lieutenant Adams
and urged him not to let that flag fall.
Come on, men! [ Screaming ]
As he's leading these men forward
with this one flag, another color bearer falls,
the man who's carrying the second regimental flag.
[ Gunfire, shouting continue ]
Adams reaches out and grabs that flag as well.
Rable: When Adams grabs the flags,
he automatically becomes a target.
You were at the utmost focus of jeopardy.
It is the most dangerous place to be on the battlefield.
Anybody who had the bravery
to hold a battle flag was a hero.
[ Men shouting ]
For Adams to have not only taken one,
but both flags, shows remarkable bravery.
[ Gunfire continues ]
Mackowski: Everyone in the 19th who's still alive
at that point is depending on those flags
to get them through.
It's up to Adams.
And he sees the opportunity to get to safety.
He leads those men to cover.
And then, remarkably, for the first time all day,
they're able to return fire.
Narrator: Despite Adams' bravery,
his men simply don't have the firepower
to knock out the fortified rebel position.
Pfanz: There's no way they can retreat without being shot.
There's no way they can go forward without being shot.
They best they can possibly do is hold their ground.
And that's what they do.
Narrator: Pinned down behind the fence,
Adams and the others are surrounded by countless
wounded union soldiers... [ Screaming ]
and can do nothing to relieve their misery.
[ Gunfire ]
[ Explosion ]
They have no idea that their cries for mercy
will soon be answered by an unlikely hero...
[ Hammer clicks ]
And that they're about to witness
one of the most courageous and selfless acts
of the civil war.
Narrator: As December 13, 1862 draws to a close,
some 8,000 union soldiers lay dead or dying
on the killing fields in front of marye's heights.
Pfanz: I think it's almost unimaginable for us today
to picture what that scene of battle
must have looked like.
Many of them were disfigured, having parts of their bodies
blown off by artillery fire.
Uh, there were literally entrails scattered
across the ground, dead horses
adding their stench, uh, to the horrid scene.
-Somebody help me! [ Clamoring, shouting ]
Man: Help me.
Narrator: By nightfall, Adams and the men
of the 19th Massachusetts remain
trapped amid the battlefield carnage.
- Water! - Don't move.
[ Hammer clicks ] [ Men grunting ]
[ Panting ]
[ Bullets whizzing ]
You had the horrible cries of the wounded
and the dying all through the night.
[ Men groaning ] Help!
Were crying out for water,
were crying out for their mother,
were crying out for somebody to help them in some way.
[ Grunting, groaning ]
Man: Water! Man: Ugh.
Mackowski: It's haunting to be out there.
Regardless of what side you're on.
If you're a confederate, and you're having to hear this,
it's chilling.
[ Groaning continues ]
If you're a federal soldier trapped out on that field,
it's gotta be terrifying.
Narrator: The misery seems endless.
[ Groaning continues ]
until something remarkable happens.
[ Groaning ]
We gotta do somethin' for those men.
Richard kirkland is a sergeant
from the second south Carolina.
And he hears the sounds of the cries of the wounded.
And he's moved by this.
Give me a canteen.
What?
I said, give me a canteen.
Where you goin'?
Pfanz: So he gathers some canteens from his buddies.
And then, at the risk of his own life,
he stepped over the stone wall,
dashed to the very first union soldier
he could find...
[ Men groaning ]
Rable: The federals were confused.
They wondered what this guy was doin' comin' over the wall.
[ Panting ]
It was not uncommon for soldiers
to rifle through the bodies of wounded men,
taking their money, taking their shoes,
taking personal effects.
So it could be that kirkland's going out there
to try to basically go through these bodies and steal.
Bodies aren't even cold yet.
He wants to turn out our pockets?
[ Men groaning ]
Once they realized he was bringing water
to their comrades, they obviously did not...
Did not fire at him.
Narrator: It is one of the most poignant
and enduring moments of the entire civil war,
an unlikely hero responding
to the desperate cries of fallen enemies,
a young man now remembered
as the angel of marye's heights.
Mackowski: He goes from soldier to wounded soldier,
administering acts of mercy,
moved by his compassion.
Kirkland, I think, embodies the compassion
that was really inside of each of these men,
but just was often covered up in the...
In the gloom of war.
[ Gasps, coughs ]
Rable: The best part of human nature
overcame his fear of danger.
Thank you.
And I think he well deserves the title,
"the angel of marye's heights."
Narrator: Robert kirkland's act of mercy
is perhaps the only gratifying moment
for the federal troops at fredericksburg.
The attack has been an abysmal failure.
Mackowski: This is gonna be the single most lopsided defeat
that the army of the potomac's gonna suffer
through the entire war.
Some 13,000 federal casualties
scattered across that field compared
to only 5,000 confederate casualties.
Narrator: For Abraham Lincoln, the defeat marks
the low point of an already crisis-filled presidency.
Mackowski: This is the worst point of the war for Lincoln.
He's issued the emancipation proclamation
and has had no battlefield success to back it up.
Public opinion is starting to turn
against the entire idea of emancipation
and the way he's prosecuting the war.
He had placed it all in line with burnside to win
that victory for him.
And it backfired.
He'd gotten a huge defeat instead.
In fact, uh, Lincoln said,
"if there was a worst place than hell, I am in it."
Narrator: On December 15th,
the shattered remains of the union army
are given the order to retreat across the rappahannock.
Incredibly, John Adams has survived.
He has failed to drive the rebels from marye's heights.
But alongside the survivors of the 19th,
he has succeeded in making history.
Adams may have just experienced
the most remarkable 72 hours of anyone's life.
He has gone through unprecedented experiences
in this war.
He goes across the river in that boat,
something that had never happened before.
He participates in that street fighting,
something that had never happened before.
Pfanz: John Adams did something that I have
never heard of any other soldier doing on any other battlefield.
And that is, uh, he rescued not only one flag but two flags.
Mackowski: And to be able to live through everything
that he went through is absolutely incredible.
Narrator: Confederate private Robert Moore continues to fight
with the 17th Mississippi.
He dies at the battle of chickamauga.
During the same battle, Richard kirkland,
the angel of marye's heights,
is killed while trying to cover the retreat
of two of his friends.
In July of 1863,
at the battle of gettysburg,
John Adams is shot three times.
He survives.
In 1865, he returns to Massachusetts,
where he becomes a postmaster for a nation reborn
from the ashes of the civil war.