In addition to the 30-minute documentary, 7 additional Bonus Features (1+ hour) are included: Dramatic Mercy-Scene, Richard Warren’s “Portrayal of a Hero” Monologue, “Living History” with Kathleen Warren, Cast and Crew Outtakes and Behind the Scenes Slideshow with Will White’s ‘Fredericksburg 1862’ title song, Director and Producer Premiere Comments and Scans of Richard Kirkland Letters.

This Widescreen DVD is now available for purchase online for $12 (+ shipping) at http://www.theangelmovie.com/store.

*Bulk-discounts available. Vendor and Media inquiries email info@theangelmovie.com. For more information, visit the film’s official website at http://www.theangelmovie.com.

More info here on our blog: http://www.theangelmovie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=14&Itemid=74

Be sure to look at the PDF document that is linked at the end of the article.

We have become very aware of the recent debate over this event and of course we are in the camp that believes it did indeed take place. During our documentary prep and in my own research, we had access to the archive materials at the Fredericksburg, VA NPS, as well as the Camden SC Historical Archives.

Without having any of those materials in front of me to quote as I type this, I reference the authority on the subject, Mac Wyckoff, retired and former NPS historian who assembled those files and provided the following statement during on an online discussion. He stated: [As a historian I wanted to know what motivated Kershaw to tell the story of Richard Kirkland and why he waited so long to tell the story. I did not expect to find an answer to my questions, but I did.

The answer was found in the South Carolina newspapers of 1880. It turns out that a reporter for a newspaper was told by a member of the 2nd South Carolina (Kirkland’s unit) that a member of his unit had performed a noble act of giving water to Union soldiers at the Battle of Fredericksburg. The veteran told the reporter that he could get more details from General Joseph Kershaw, the original commander of the 2nd South Carolina and brigade commander at Fredericksburg. The reporter wrote the story and asked if Kershaw could provide details. Kershaw’s article appeared in the newspaper six days later telling the story as we know it today.

Kershaw’s motivation was simply he had been asked to do so. Over the next few years, several members of the 2nd South Carolina confirmed the details of Kershaw’s story and the name of Richard Kirkland. It is significant that not a single member of the 2nd South Carolina challenged the veracity of the story which became quiet well known in South Carolina by 1900. Kershaw was a prominent figure in South Carolina politics after the war so had naturally developed some political opponents. Not one of them challenged Kerhaw’s statement about the Kirkland incident. The details of my research on Kirkland including the 1880 newspaper articles and the statements by other members of the 2nd South Carolina are in the Kirkland file in the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center.]

BTW: All of these files are open to the public to come and look. So in fact, Kershaw, although given primary credit, was actually a follow-up interview. I find it telling that not a single person ever challenged this account at the time it was made public. Surely there would have been an outcry if it was a total fabrication. (I also find it difficult to accept that a single blogger can debunk hundreds of years of shared history with a single piece.)

That said, we do acknowledge that there is certainly room for speculation in the details. We did our best to incorporate a balanced presentation and acknowledge that fact. We use the term ‘memory’ in the opening. Thanks again for linking to us and I hope you will be able to view our film at a screening or when the DVD is released.

But this does not change my own feelings that the South attempted to wage a war that the North had no intention of fighting. They quite literally brought a knife to a gun fight. “Total war” was the order of the day by the Union FROM THE BEGINNING. It wasn’t something that just “happened” as the South’s resistance broke through the ordinarily kindly behavior of the Yankees. The Yankees were thieves, rapists and murders from the beginning. Oh, not all of them, of course! But enough. This is obvious when you read the letters of ordinary Yankee soldiers sent home to their families and loved ones. It is obvious from them that the Southern people were considered inferior and deserving of every bad treatment and calamity. And their actions were countenanced by their leaders both military and political. A very good example of that is the infamous Richmond Raid headed by Dahlgren and Kilpatrick. Contrary to efforts both at the time and to this day, this matter was hatched by the Lincoln government and only Kilpatrick’s loss of nerve when he backed off Richmond and left Dahlgren to his fate saved the Confederate government from mass murder and Richmond from the torch.

I always get a real kick out of the sanctimonious horror demonstrated by Northern apologists then and now when it comes to the Lincoln assassination! Admittedly, however, it’s a shame that Booth suceeded because the act has placed a tyrant and a war criminal on a pedestal from which he will probably never be dislodged.

I’ll quote Richard G. Williams, Jr., of the Old Virginia blog on this topic:

Despite what appears to me to be a manufactured controversy about the story and film, there’s no reason to suggest or believe the event which this film explores didn’t happen or, that it has been grossly exaggerated or influenced so some could “choose to remember our Civil War” a certain- assumedly inaccurate – “way”. Frankly, that sounds more like psychotherapy than historical analysis to a simple buff like me. Like most stories that are handed down through first hand oral accounts, there are things we don’t know and, like much of our history, it is left up to historians and researchers to do their best, using the information available, to “fill in the blanks.” As NPS historian, Mac Wyckoff pointed out:

“It is significant that not a single member of the 2nd South Carolina challenged the veracity of the story which became quiet well known in South Carolina by 1900. Kershaw was a prominent figure in South Carolina politics after the war so had naturally developed some political opponents. Not one of them challenged Kerhaw’s statement about the Kirkland incident.”

http://cwmemory.com/2009/12/22/is-the-richard-kirkland-story-true/