Forgotten Patriots | History, Christians, Families, Civil War, WW1, WW2, Revolutionary War, Conservatives

In April of 1861, the War Between the States broke out.

Nine-year-old Johnny Lincoln Clem ran away from home to join the Union Army. But Johnny found the Army not particularly interested in recruiting a boy.

The commander of the 3rd Ohio Regiment told him he “wasn't enlisting infants just yet,” and sent him home. Johnny, then headed to the 22nd Michigan Regiment nearby.

Determined, Johnny tagged along and demonstrated his skill as a drummer boy so professionally the commander allowed him to stay with the regiment.

At the same time, a fourteen-year-old boy joined the Union Army in late 1861, Company D, 8th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. What he fought for was “to free the blacks” and “save the Union.”

His name was George Preston Nock. He was my Great-Grandfather.

Their willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice is why this nation is what it is today. It’s why we’ve become an Ensign of Liberty to the world, that Shining City on A Hill that President Reagan spoke of so reverently.

These two related, true stories that overlap—representing so many heroes, as well—show us why we remember Veterans Day this November.

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I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

50 - THE GREAT ESCAPE FROM LIBBY PRISON | Lt. Jacob Merritt (Union Prisoner) | Civil War

49 - THE SPY CONFEDERATES NEVER SUSPECTED… | Elizabeth “Crazy Bet” Van Lew (Union Spy) | Civil War

44 - INSPIRING THE AMERICAN SOUNDTRACK | Stephen Foster (Composer) | Civil War

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Veterans Day / Civil War / Drummer Boy / Shiloh / Chickamauga / Libby Prison / Union / Confederate States / Virginia / Richmond / Slavery / United States / Union Army / Abolition / Emancipation

As an orphan in the 1930s, Francis (Frank) Sherman Currey often stared across the Hudson River at the US Military Academy at West Point standing high on the hills overlooking the river.

As he watched the men march, he longed to join with them, to be accepted into this prestigious institution. Still, he knew that because of his poor, disadvantaged life, such a dream could never be achieved.

But this was no ordinary boy. Francis (Frank) Currey would not let his poverty and lack of education deter him from serving his country, especially when America was attacked in World War II.

Joining the Army, Frank soon found himself in Europe with the 30th Infantry Division and facing the full might of Nazi Germany in the Battle of the Bulge.

The men of Frank’s platoon fully expected to be annihilated by the large, advancing German 1st SS Panzer Division. But in the heat of battle Sergeant Frank Currey refused to retreat but did what he had to in order to survive.

This orphaned kid from New York gathered his weapons, and moving quickly, did what no one thought possible…

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I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

50 - THE GREAT ESCAPE FROM LIBBY PRISON | Lt. Jacob Merritt (Union Prisoner) | Civil War

24 - YOUNGEST U.S. OFFICER IN WW2... OUTNUMBERED BY NAZIS?! | Lt. Lyle Bouck (Army) | WWII

20 - TAKING ON THE GERMAN AIR FORCE... *ALONE* | Major James Howard (US Air Force) | WWII

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Medal of Honor / Orphan / West Point / Veteran Hospital Volunteer / Battle of the Bulge / Browning Automatic Rifle / Standing Alone / World War II / Malmedy Belgium / 30th Infantry Division / Germany

Crouched deep underground within the bowels of the massive building, inhaling putrid air without complaint, and in the meager light of a single candle, the Union prisoners worked with a purpose.

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Among them was LIEUTENANT JACOB MERRITT, just twenty-three-years-old.

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Jacob lay on his belly in the cramped tunnel, chipping at the earthen wall, the opening just twenty inches wide. The tunnel began in the new kitchen.

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The prisoners moved the stove and dislodging select bricks allowing access inside the chimney providing access below to the old, sealed off kitchen in the basement. But this was also known as “Rat Hell.”

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Inch by painful inch, the tunnel grew longer. From the digging, Jacob’s hands blistered, his fingernails split.

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Digging without his clothes (to keep any sign of dirt from them) the aggressive rats plagued him, biting his bare skin, running over his legs, back, even his hair.

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But his passion to escape drove him forward…

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I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

49 - THE SPY CONFEDERATES NEVER SUSPECTED… | Elizabeth “Crazy Bet” Van Lew (Union Spy) | Civil War

40 - 3 MUST-SEE MOVIES FOR SEEKERS OF TRUTH | WWII, Civil War, Vietnam War

22 - ALLURING AMERICAN ACTRESS... AND UNION SPY?! | Pauline Cushman | Civil War

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

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CIVIL WAR / VIRGINIA / UNION / CONFEDERATE STATES / RICHMOND / LIBBY PRISON / FREEDOM / ESCAPE / TUNNELING / RAT HELL / ELIZABETH VAN LEW / JACOB MERRITT / AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Elizabeth Van Lew was determined Richmond would fall, the sooner the better.

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Beneath her basket of groceries were secret Union dispatches written skillfully in invisible ink, folded innocuously like bookmarks between sheets of household shopping accounts.

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Two Confederate soldiers strolled past, rifles slung lazily across their shoulders.

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The soldiers tipped their hats and moved on, unsuspecting that the well-known local woman known as “Crazy Bet,” was in fact one of President Lincoln’s most devastating spies.

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Who was this daring woman who fully understood she would be immediately hung if caught as a spy for the North?

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But Elizabeth Van Lew viewed the Confederate rebellion as an abomination, an affront to the sacrifice of America’s Founding Fathers, men and women who gave their lives establishing a God-centered, free republic.

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So, when starving Union prisoners began to fill Richmond’s disease-infested Libby Prison to overflowing, she knew what she had to do...

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I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

48 - "WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY... AND HE IS OURS!" | Oliver Hazard Perry (U.S. Navy Commander) | War of 1812

30 - THE AMERICAN SUPERSPY | Virginia Hall "The Limping Lady" (Anti-Nazi Resistance) | WWII

22 - ALLURING AMERICAN ACTRESS... AND UNION SPY?! | Pauline Cushman | Civil War

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

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ELIZABETH VAN LEW / CIVIL WAR / SLAVERY / FREEDOM / LIBBY PRISON / SPY / TRADECRAFT / GREAT ESCAPE / MARY BOWSER / RICHMOND / WAR BETWEEN THE STATES / UNION / CONFEDERACY / 1864

Morning of September 10, 1813. The British naval squadron under Commander Robert Harriet Barclay, advanced with the confidence and skill of the world’s most powerful navy.

Facing them that day was a young American naval officer just *27-years-old*... Oliver Hazard Perry.

As the two fleets closed distance near Put-In-Bay, Ohio, Commander Perry’s men braced themselves.

Most were farmers and frontiersmen. Many were boys. Almost all had never seen naval combat. Some were freed African American slaves.

Perry had barely a small cadre of ten experienced naval officers, not hardly enough to man his small fleet without volunteer help. Perry’s flagship, the USS Lawrence, bore the brunt of British fire. Masts splintered, rigging collapsed, and blood flowed on the deck.

Of Commander Perry’s crew totaling 103, nearly 80 were killed or wounded. The deck was a scene of bloody carnage. In such a hopeless situation, most commanders would have surrendered the fleet.

Instead, Commander Perry made a decision that would etch his name forever in the history of this great nation...

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

47 - THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS WHO SAVED OUR WORLD | Sir Isaac Newton + More | The Enlightenment

35 - WASHINGTON'S MIRACLE MAN (Part 1/3) | Col. John Glover (Marblehead Mariners Commander) | Revolutionary War

25 - THE HEROES WHO REBUILT OUR DESTROYED U.S. NAVY | Engineers & Rescue Divers (U.S. Navy) | WWII

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Battle of Lake Erie / “Don’t Give Up the Ship” / War of 1812 / Naval Warfare / Courage / Fortitude / USS Lawrence / USS Niagara / Leadership

The Enlightenment is often painted as an age when cold science triumphed over devotion to God.

This message of today’s Secular-Progressive World is anything but true.

Many of the greatest minds of that age were men whose Christian faith shaped their scientific genius.

They did not see their work as dismantling God’s place in the cosmos but where the veil of creation was peeled back just enough for these men to glimpse the craftsmanship of the Creator.

For heaven’s sake, virtually all scientists of the “Enlightenment” or “Age of Discovery” were solid, practicing Christians. More so, a full 25 percent were clergy members!

Even today, 83 percent of Nobel Peace Prize recipients identify as Christian or come from Christian nations of the West.

For Newton, Boyle, Kepler, Pascal, Linnaeus, and Faraday, the research laboratory and the church were, in truth, identical. Each a house of worship where the glory of God and His love is revealed to bless a struggling world.

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

46 - THE CHRISTIAN ("MORMON") BOY WHO STOOD AGAINST HITLER | Helmuth Hubener (Anti-Nazi Resistance) | WWII

42 - A PRAYER TO SAVE AMERICA | Benjamin Franklin (Founding Father) | Revolutionary War

27 - "THE HAMMER" WHO SAVED CHRISTIANITY | Charles Martel ("Knights of Our Lord" Leader) | 700s A.D.

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SIR ISAAC NEWTON / ROBERT BOYLE / JOHANNES KEPLER / BLAISE PASCAL / CAROLUS LINNAEUS / MICHAEL FARADAY / CHRISTIANITY / CREATION / FAITH / RELIGION / SECULAR PROGRESSIVISM / JESUS CHRIST

Helmuth Gunther Hubener grew up in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power. Helmuth was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called “Mormons.”

Helmuth could see that his beloved Germany was being destroyed systematically from within. He and his friends felt compelled to tell the people of Germany what was really going on.

So, with a borrowed typewriter, they produced short pamphlets and passed them out, warning everyone about the bad things the Nazi secret police and the military were doing. Even at a young age, Helmuth understood that the Nazis were an evil, racist, totalitarian movement bent on world domination.

But the Gestapo, the secret police, was on his trail and it was not likely he and his young friends could escape the terror rushing at them…

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

45 - SILENCING OUR MODERN ST. STEPHEN | Charlie Kirk (Political Activist) | 2025

30 - THE AMERICAN SUPERSPY | Virginia Hall (Anti-Nazi Resistance) | WWII

11 - "STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE... EVEN IF YOU MUST STAND ALONE." | Teenager Sophie Scholl (Anti-Nazi Resistance) | WWII

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

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HELMUTH HUBENER / WORLD WAR II / NAZIS / COURAGE / FAITH IN GOD / COUNTERING EVIL / LDS / MORMON / CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS / RESISTANCE / FIGHTING EVIL / FIGHTING PROPAGANDA

We admire Charlie Kirk. He sacrificed himself for his faith.

Two thousand years ago, shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, a young disciple by the name of Stephen, also spoke for truth and willingly gave his life for the faith.

Both Stephen and Charlie Kirk were young and exceptionally dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Both spoke truth in the public forum before all who would listen. And in the end, we know, both met violent deaths at the hands of those who passionately hated the truth.

Standing with Jerusalem’s leaders two millennia ago, as Stephen was executed, was a young man named Saul. Saul was struck by the sublime courage that Stephen exhibited. Saul became Paul, the greatest Christian missionary who ever lived.

I am certain that someone, perhaps many, who witnessed Charlie Kirk’s martyrdom will be inspired by the Spirit to help bring a new, and desperately needed, Christian revival to our struggling and divided world.

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

(Image Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

44 - INSPIRING THE AMERICAN SOUNDTRACK | Stephen Foster (Composer) | Civil War

24 - YOUNGEST U.S. OFFICER IN WW2... OUTNUMBERED BY NAZIS?! | Lt. Lyle Bouck (Army) | WWII

11 - "STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE... EVEN IF YOU MUST STAND ALONE." | Teenager Sophie Scholl (Anti-Nazi Resistance) | WWII

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

-Join our newsletter and get a free gift! - Click Here

-Contact us at: [email protected]

-Find our video episodes on YouTube

CHARLIE KIRK / ST. STEPHEN / FREEDOM / FREE SPEECH / TERRORISM / ASSASSINATION / LIBERTY / GOSPEL OF JESUS / MARTYRS / MARTYRDOM / ISRAEL / AMERICA / BOOK OF ACTS / THE BIBLE

Stephen Collins Foster was the creator and author of what many call the American Soundtrack.

We were a young nation at the time, a divided nation, an angry nation. The tunes that escaped his troubled heart offered hope at a time when many thought the United States would fracture and fall.

His music captured America’s sorrows, but also its joys and beauties. His work revealed the mighty paradox in the American soul. One that, in the ancient words of Moses, “proclaimed liberty throughout the land” while nurturing the ugly institution of slavery.

As an avowed Abolitionist, Stephen Foster hoped his music would represent America’s black population sympathetically.

His melodies today remain iconic: Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, My Old Kentucky Home, Beautiful Dreamer, Old Folks at Home, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Hard Times Come Again No More, and hundreds more.

But behind his timeless assembly of Americana lurked a frail man haunted by inner demons, social turmoil, and deep personal tragedy.

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

43 - CREATING AMERICA'S BATTLE HYMN | Julia Ward Howe (Poet/Abolitionist) | Civil War

39 - "THE LITTLE LADY WHO STARTED THIS GREAT WAR" | Harriet Beecher Stowe (Author) | Civil War

21 - OUR HERO WHO WAS "PRONE TO WANDER" | Robert Robinson (Pastor/Hymnist) | 1700s

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

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-Find our video episodes on YouTube

AMERICAN MUSIC / AMERICANA / STEPHEN FOSTER / FATHER OF AMERICAN MUSIC / CIVIL WAR / SLAVERY / ABOLITION / KENTUCKY HOME

That night in Washington, D.C., towards dawn, Julia Ward Howe could not sleep, so she arose and sat at a nearby writing desk.

She related this pivotal event later:

“I awoke in the early morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of a poem began to twine themselves into my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, ‘I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them!’ So, I sprang out of bed and…scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”

And The Battle Hymn of the Republic was born, which brought President Abraham Lincoln to tears.

And from its publication, the Northern Free States began to win.

More so, the Civil War, in the North, became a war to free all men from bondage…the power of a Godly anthem to inspire hearts and minds everywhere.

I’m Rick Robison and this is the HEROES FOR FREEDOM Podcast.

**Want more incredible stories like these for your home??**

---> HEROES FOR FREEDOM MANUALS (Volumes 1-3) - Purchase on Amazon!

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY LIKE:

42 - A PRAYER TO SAVE AMERICA | Benjamin Franklin (Founding Father) | Revolutionary War

39 - "THE LITTLE LADY WHO STARTED THIS GREAT WAR" | Harriet Beecher Stowe (Author) | Civil War

21 - OUR HERO WHO WAS "PRONE TO WANDER" | Robert Robinson (Pastor/Hymnist) | 1700s

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

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CIVIL WAR / JULIA WARD HOWE / LINCOLN / UNION ARMY / AMERICAN ANTHEM / ABOLITIONIST / POET / MOTHER / INSPIRATION