Sergeant Richard Rowland Kirkland looked out on the field of battle at Fredericksburg, Va and was appalled at what he saw. At Daylight on December 14, 1862, the young sergeant in the 2nd South Carolina Infantry loaded himself with an armload of canteens from his fellow soldiers and climbed over the wall onto the field of dead & wounded. As the sergeant walked to the closest wounded Northerner, the opposing Federal troops held their fire long enough for Kirkland to kneel down, lift up the wounded man's head and give him a drink of water. Both sides held their fire
while the courageous sergeant spent the next hour and a half moving from one suffering soldier to another. As he returned safely to the Confederate line behind the wall, Southerners and Northerners facing each other on the field of battle were reminded they were Americans all.
Issued in a signed numbered edition of 950 lithographs.
Image size: 17" x 28."