Rooftop Revelations: We will not let freedom die
Pastor and Project HOOD founder Corey Brooks says his journey through the Fredericksburg battlefield during the Civil War in Virginia reminded him of the “freedom” soldiers gave to Americans, telling citizens to let their “heroism” be a lesson to all.
I have been walking through this wonderful country for months now. There’s something beautiful about walking: you notice details along the way, you have conversations with strangers, and sometimes it’s just breathing in the air that brings each place to life. As I drove into Fredericksburg, Virginia, I was eager to walk through some of America’s most historic battlefields—until the road got a lot more difficult. A doctor diagnosed a pyogenic granuloma – a medical term for a growth – on my heel after days of endless walking. It bleeds, it throbs, but I know that the temporary pain I feel is nothing compared to the past suffering that occurred on these battlefields.
Fredericksburg was a slaughterhouse during the Civil War, where Union soldiers charged into Confederate fire and paid the ultimate price. Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville and the wilderness – the soil here is soaked in the sacrifices of men who believed freedom was worth dying for. My heel throbs as I walk, and I think how insignificant it is compared to the pain and death those soldiers endured – men like me – so that others could walk the same paths in hope, not in chains.
I’m not just running for myself, but for a generation of kids who still need to believe that these opportunities are worth fighting for. Many of them have been abandoned by their schools and parents, and they have no idea of the history that awaits them.
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A stranger who stopped me pointed to nearby fields and told me that runaway slaves secretly trudged through those paths, risking everything for freedom. They traveled at night, often barefoot, and depended on the kindness of strangers.
As I walked through the Fredericksburg battlefield, I read signs and visited monuments describing the bravery of those who fought for America. It grounds the reality that freedom is not free. We did not have to fight and risk our lives for freedom like those who came before us. Therefore it is all the wiser and more necessary that we do everything in our power to preserve freedom. We cannot allow freedom to perish in our time; we must pass her on.
I sat down on a bench to rest my foot for a few minutes. A man named Ben came up to me. He was from South Carolina and asked if I had ever heard of the Battle of New Market Heights. I didn’t have that. He told me it was a battlefield about two hours east of here – where former slaves, now American Colored Troops, stormed the Confederate fortifications on September 29, 1864.
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They were part of a diversionary offensive orchestrated by Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler under the broader leadership of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. The goal was to draw Confederate reinforcements from the besieged city of Petersburg and weaken General Robert E. Lee’s defenses around the Confederate capital.
Ben explained that Butler, a strong believer in the capabilities of black soldiers, featured these former slaves to prove their mettle – especially after the disastrous Crater attack earlier that summer, in which black troops had suffered under poor white leadership. At a poignant moment before the advance, Butler rode among the regiments and ordered them to attack with the cry of “Remember Fort Pillow!” – invoking the brutal 1864 massacre of Black Union soldiers surrendered by Confederate forces in Tennessee. Facing them were approximately 8,700 Confederates, including the experienced Texas Brigade led by Brig. General John Gregg, entrenched along a line that had repulsed previous Union attacks.
On the day of the battle, at 5:30 am, they charged uphill through unforgiving terrain into withering artillery and musket fire – more than 200 casualties in the first minutes. When white officers fell, black soldiers seized command. They seized the regimental colors of the dead and continued their charge into the fire. Finally, at 8 a.m., the Black forces stormed over the hill, routing the Confederates and capturing the heights.
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Fourteen black soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery in this battle – the most ever awarded to blacks in a single battle, and nearly all medals awarded to black troops during the entire war. Ben paused. He said the sight of that bloody field, of men who were slaves yesterday and now dying for freedom, moved the living to tears.
I had to imagine it. The strength and faith of these men who were slaves yesterday and were willing to fight to the death for a freedom they had only just tasted. What higher calling is there? These men fought to bring us all freedom.
I’m walking today because I’ve seen far too many people who have wasted this gift. I stood up and thanked Ben with a long hug. He, a stranger, gave me a gift. I had never heard of these soldiers before, and now I am determined to make their heroism a lesson to us all.
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When I resumed my walk, I forgot about the pain in my heel. All I could think of was what freedom really is.
But this isn’t the end of the story – it’s the beginning of the fight.
In our time, the struggle for freedom is not waged with muskets or bayonets, but with ballots, books and bold faith. The enemy is not over a ridge or on a hill; he is in the mirror, in the complacency that causes schools to fail, families to fall apart, and hope to fade in the hearts of our children.
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I will keep walking. Step by step. Not because the way is easy, but because the cause is just. Because every child in every forgotten neighborhood deserves to know the names of Powhatan Beaty, Christian Fleetwood and Miles James – men who have proven that freedom is not given, it is taken – through courage, through sacrifice, through faith.
Let their victory on that hill become our vow today: We will not let freedom die while we watch.
CLICK HERE TO PASTOR COREY BROOKS
