Tuhia he tomokanga mo tenei whitianga - I te pakarutanga o te Pakanga a-iwi, i tohua a Kirkland hei rangatira i te ope taua o te Rōpū, katahi ka pootihia hei koroneela o te 11th North Carolina Volunteers, i muri mai ka tohua ko te 21st North Carolina, i te Pipiri 1861. I whakahau ia i tana rerenga i te Manassas Tuatahi hei waahanga o te brigade a Brig. Gen. Milledge Bonham, engari kaore i tino kaha. I te Oketopa, i whakauruhia te 21 o North Carolina ki te brigade a Isaac Trimble, a, i te puna e whai ake nei, i uru ia ki te pakanga a Stonewall Jackson o Shenandoah Valley. I werohia a Kirkland i roto i nga huha e rua i te Pakanga Tuatahi o Winchester
, e kore ai ia e mahi mō ngā marama maha. I a ia e ora ana, ko Kirkland te rangatira o nga kaimahi mo Patrick Cleburne i te pakanga a Murfreesboro i te marama o Tihema 1862.