A few years ago I visited Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. I’d read Robert Hicks’ fabulous historical novel, “The Widow of the South,” about Carrie McGavock, whose family home was turned into a field hospital during the bloody Battle of Franklin on November  30, 1864.

The tour guide said one thing in passing that I’ve never forgotten. He said from accounts written at the time, it seems that as both Union and Confederate soldiers lay dying they all seemed to wail the same word: “Mama.” 

A universal lamentation, it seems. In their moments of total despair the strongest men instinctively call out for the person who kept them safe when they were babies: Their mothers.

I thought of that on Friday night as I forced myself to watch the killing of Tyre Nichols. As five sadistic Memphis cops beat him to death - we’re going to drop the “allegedly” in this case - the 29-year old cried out for his mother.

“Mom, Mom, Mom,” he implored, a prayer of sorts.

I can’t imagine a mother alive who heard that and didn’t want to weep.

And I cannot imagine what it was like for Tyre’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, to watch the killing of her son.

She warned others not to let their young children see the video.

The tape is horrific. It casts a dark shadow over policing in this country and fuels the dangerous anti-law enforcement sentiment that has gained traction across the country and even in Virginia. It’s not justified, but that’s what happens when a few bad cops are in the spotlight.

There’s nothing to be said, no comment that can be made that adequately conveys the horror of what happened on January 7 of this year when five sick men beat and kicked a young man into a coma and ultimately to his death. Nothing that Tyre said or did justified that savagery.

That raw footage was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. As a mother, I had to look away.

Mrs. Wells said it perfectly: Those attackers brought “shame” to their families. She added that she was praying for their families.

She’s a better Christian than many of us would be in similar circumstances.