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Born September 8, 1828 in Brewer Maine, Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain was a professor of rhetoric, languages and religion
at Bowdoin College and the father of two when he joined the Union
army in 1862. He was made lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine.
With his regiment Chamberlain fought in the battles of Antietam,
Shepherdstown Ford, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
Cold Harbor and Petersburg. He was wounded at Fredericksburg,
Gettysburg and Petersburg. Chamberlain received the Congressional
Medal of Honor at Gettysburg for his leadership and success in
holding the left flank on Little Round Top. |
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At Petersburg, Chamberlain was promoted to Brigadier
General by Grant and was given the honor
of commanding the troops who accepted the surrender of Lee at
Appomattox. After the war, Chamberlain returned to Maine where
he continued on at Bowdoin College until he was elected to four
terms as governor. After the governorship, Chamberlain became
president of Bowdoin College and wrote several books about Maine
and the Civil War. |
Long Biography
The oldest of five children, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was
born September 8, 1828 in Brewer, Maine. Chamberlain proved to
be an excellent student and entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick,
Maine in 1848 where he excelled in his studies and also met his
future bride, Fannie Adams. After graduation in 1852, Chamberlain
went on to study at the Bangor Theological Seminary. Three years
later, he accepted a teaching position at his old college and
married. The couple settled into a quiet college routine and
a marriage that produced five children. The young teacher was
a firm believer in the strength of the American form of government
threatened by secession of the south in 1861. Keenly aware of
the circumstances of a divided nation and with his passion for
the Union cause "undying", Chamberlain left his teaching
position to volunteer his services to the state in 1862. Though
he lacked any military background, Chamberlain's educational
experience landed him the rank of lieutenant colonel for the
20th Maine Infantry Regiment. The regiment left Maine, bound
for Washington where it was assigned to Butterfield's "Light
Brigade" of the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Chamberlain's
first battle experience was during the Maryland Campaign in the
fall of 1862. The 20th Maine Infantry was held in reserve during
the Battle of Antietam on September 17, though Chamberlain witnessed
first-hand the horrors of the battlefield and its aftermath.
Events would put the 20th Maine in the forefront of battle at
Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862. Trapped on the
plain west of the city, Chamberlain and his soldiers spent a
fitful night on the battlefield while wounded died all about
them and the dead froze into grotesque forms.
By the summer of 1863, Chamberlain
had been promoted to colonel and marched the 20th Maine northward
in pursuit of Lee. On July 1, the Fifth Corps marched to Hanover,
Pennsylvania before turning west toward Gettysburg. An overnight
forced march got the troops to a location in rear of Cemetery
Ridge the next day and Chamberlain's men took a brief but grateful
rest. It was here that Chamberlain faced the distasteful duty
of addressing "mutinous" soldiers assigned to the 20th
Infantry from the old 2nd Maine, which had been mustered out.
A group of men whose enlistments had not expired refused to carry
arms and were placed under arrest. Chamberlain's brief speech
and his pledge to plead their case caused all but a handful to
take arms and join the ranks of the 20th for the coming battle.
The Fifth Corps was called to
the front when fighting began at 4 o'clock. With the remainder
of Colonel Vincent's brigade, Chamberlain's men rushed to the
front to be placed on the southern slope of Little Round Top,
the extreme left of the Union line. Within minutes they were
trading volleys with Confederate skirmishers tramping down the
slope of Big Round Top, soldiers from General Law's Alabama Brigade.
The 15th Alabama Infantry, commanded by Colonel William C. Oates,
had climbed over the summit of the larger hill, reorganized,
and were now sweeping northward toward the Union line. The regiments
collided on the hillside and Chamberlain's regiment stood firm.
It was a tumultuous scene of savagery as smoke, fire, and the
groans of dying men filled the woods. Standing behind his thinning
ranks, the colonel could see the effect of the Confederate charges
on his position:
"The roar of all this tumult
reached us on the left and heightened the intensity of our resolve.
Meanwhile the flanking column worked around to our left and joined
those before us in a fierce assault, which lasted with increasing
fury for an intense hour. The two lines met and broke and intermingled
in the shock. The crush of musketry gave way to cuts and thrusts,
grapplings and wrestlings. The edge of conflict swayed to and
fro, with wild pools and eddies. At times I saw around me more
of the enemy than of my own men; gaps opening, swallowing, closing
again with sharp, convulsive energy; squads of stalwart men who
had cut their way through us, disappearing as if translated all
around me, strange, mingled roar- shouts of defiance, rally and
desperation; and underneath, murmered (sic) entreaty and stifled
moans; gasping prayers, snatches of Sabbath song, whispers of
loved names; everywhere men torn and broken, staggering, creeping,
quivering on the earth, and dead faces with strangley (sic) fixed
eyes staring stark into the sky."
"In the very deepest of
the struggle while our shattered line had pressed the enemy well
below their first point of contact... I saw through a sudden
rift in the thick smoke our colors standing alone. I first thought
some optical illusion imposed upon me. But as forms emerged through
the drifting smoke, the truth came to view. The cross fire had
cut keenly; the center had almost been shot away; only two of
the color guard had been left, and they fighting to fill the
whole space; and in the center, wreathed in battle smoke, stood
the Color Sergeant Andrew Tozier. His color-staff planted in
the ground at his side, the upper part clasped in his elbow,
so holding the flag upright, with musket and cartridges seized
from the fallen comrade at his side he was defending his sacred
trust in the manner of the songs of chivalry. It was a stirring
picture..."
The Confederate attacks came
in waves, each more intense than the one before. At the height
of the fighting, a Confederate bullet struck Chamberlain on his
left thigh. Luckily the metal sword scabbard hanging at his side
diverted the bullet, leaving him with only with a painful bruise.
The colonel leapt to his feet and continued to encourage his
men, directing the defense of the rocky hillside. The relentless
Confederate assaults shredded Chamberlain's ranks and the situation
looked grim as ammunition began to run out. Soldiers ransacked
the cartridge boxes of the wounded and dead strewn on the hillside,
but there was not enough to continue for much longer and that
meager supply soon ran out. Chamberlain had not only been directing
his men, but closely observing the southern attacks as well.
Sensing exhaustion among the Confederates who were also probably
running out of ammunition, he formulated a final plan to defend
the 20th Maine's part of the shrinking Union line. There was
a brief lull in the fighting when the colonel called all of his
officers quickly to a meeting and explained his proposal- the
20th Maine was going to make a charge!
"Not a moment was about
to be lost! Five minutes more of such a defensive and the last
roll call would sound for us! Desperate as the chances were,
there was nothing for it but to take the offensive. I stepped
to the colors. The men turned towards me. One word was enough-
'BAYONETS!' It caught like fire and swept along the ranks. The
men took it up with a shout, one could not say whether from the
pit or the song of the morning sat, it was vain to order 'Forward!'.
No mortal could have heard it in the mighty hosanna that was
winging the sky. The whole line quivered from the start; the
edge of the left-wing rippled, swung, tossed among the rocks,
straightened, changed curve from scimitar to sickle-shape; and
the bristling archers swooped down upon the serried host- down
into the face of half a thousand! Two hundred men!
"It was a great right wheel.
Our left swung first, the advancing foe stopped, tried to make
a stand amidst the trees and boulders, but the frenzied bayonets
pressing through every space forced a constant settling to the
rear. Morrill with his detached company and the remnants of our
valorous sharpshooters... now fell upon the flank of the retiring
crowd. At the first dash the commanding officer I happened to
confront, coming on fiercely (with) sword in hand and big navy
revolver (in) the other, fires one barrel almost in my face.
But seeing the quick saber point at his throat, reverses arms,
gives sword and pistol into my hands and yields himself prisoner."
"Ranks were broken; some
retired before us somewhat hastily; some threw their muskets
to the the ground- even loaded; sunk on their knees, threw up
their hands calling out, 'We surrender. Don't kill us!' As if
we wanted to do that! We kill only to resist killing. And these
were manly men, whom we could befriend and by no means kill,
if they came our way in peace and good will."
The charge of the 20th Maine
Infantry was the climax of the fighting in front of Vincent's
brigade and contributed greatly to the Union victory at Little
Round Top.
In the spring of 1864, Chamberlain
commanded a brigade in the 1st Division, Fifth Corps that he
led during the Wilderness Campaign to Petersburg, Virginia. On
June 18, 1864, Chamberlain was seriously wounded at the Battle
of White Oak Road outside of Petersburg. Taken to a field hospital,
the attending surgeon pronounced the wound to be mortal and Chamberlain
was thought to be on his death bed. Much to the surprise of all,
Chamberlain made a miraculous recovery and by the following spring
was strong enough to rejoin the army as a brigadier general,
a promotion he had received the day he was wounded. In April
1865, General Chamberlain led his troops at the Battle of Five
Forks, which broke the Confederate hold on Petersburg. A sudden
change in corps command after that battle placed Chamberlain
in command of the 1st Division of the Fifth Corps during the
final campaign to Appomattox Court House.
After the surrender terms were
signed by General Robert E. Lee on April 9, General Chamberlain was assigned
the task of accepting the formal surrender of arms of the Army
of Northern Virginia scheduled for April 12, 1865. It was a cool,
wet day. Their lines formed on the road leading to Appomattox
Court House, Chamberlain's division watched the tattered gray
column trudge toward the village. Without hesitation, Chamberlain
called his men to attention and saluted the Confederates as they
approached. At the head of the Confederate column a despondent
General John Gordon heard the shifting of weapons and recognized
the honor. He rose in his saddle, reigned in his horse and boldly
returned the salute. Former enemies paid their respects to each
other in this last act of the war in Virginia.
Chamberlain returned to peaceful
pursuits in Maine after the war and was elected governor of the
state. In 1871 he was persuaded to accept the president's position
at Bowdoin College where he restructured the college curriculum
to include science and engineering. Chamberlain was also active
in the Grand Army of the Republic, the national organization
of Union veterans. He resigned from Bowdoin College in 1883 due
to ill health, but continued to write about his war-time experiences
and remained active in veteran circles. He later dabbled in several
businesses including real estate, but none satisfied him as much
as education. In 1893, Congress honored him with the Congressional
Medal of Honor for gallantry at Gettysburg. In 1900, he was appointed
Surveyor of the Port of Maine, a position which he held until
his death on February 14, 1914. General Chamberlain is buried
in Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Maine. |
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Brigadier General
Joshua L. Chamberlain