Day 4 - Nick Kimbrell Passes Through Battery Heights

On his fourth day, Nick was steadfast, weary and anxious to reach Washington. His numerous blisters, "a spectral of blisters," made walking painful, and two blisters were inflamed by infection.

He left Fauquier County, the bridge between the Blue Ridge mountains and northern Virginia. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall was born there. He dominated the court for over three decades, enshrining in law the concept of judicial review, that the court could strike down laws it deemed unconstitutional. Justice Marshall was also responsible for ruling on enumerated powers, defining the responsibilities of Congress.

He walked through Bull Run his way to Gainesville, where he spent the night. His march had advanced from an action he had undertaken to being a part of him. He undertook his march to broadcast the evils of the war; now his subconscious was engrossed with it, and he thought about all the soldiers who had fought. At Battery Heights, Nick decided to break and dozed off on that hallowed ground. He awoke shortly later to an eerie scene: black clouds had rolled in, casting a ghostly pallor over the landscape, as though lost souls walking around the battlefield wanted Nick to know their soldierly sacrifice, and in so doing, recognized his.