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One such episode involved the 20th Maine Infantry.
Organized in the Maine Volunteer Militia in August 1862, the
20th Maine mustered into Federal service several weeks later.
Assigned to the Army of the Potomac, the regiment fought in the
Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville campaigns.
At Gettysburg, the 20th was commanded by Colonel
Joshua L. Chamberlain, a former professor at Maine's Bowdoin
College. After marching all day and night to reach Gettysburg,
the regiment was ordered late in the afternoon of July 2 to occupy
critical terrain between two hills, Big and Little Round Top.
Chamberlain was ordered to hold this position on the extreme
left flank of the Union line at all costs; if outflanked by the
Confederates, the entire Union position would be in jeopardy.
It was not long before the 15th and 47th Alabama Regiments
attacked. The 20th Maine held off six attacks by the determined
Alabama men, but Colonel Chamberlain knew that his regiment,
low on ammunition, could not withstand a seventh. He therefore
ordered a counterattack with fixed bayonets, and the 20th charged
down the slopes of Little Round Top into the startled Confederates
and broke their attack.
The 20th Maine took 400 prisoners and stopped the
Confederates threat to the Union flank. The crucial role these
Maine militiamen played in the Union victory at Gettysburg exemplifies
the military qualities of leadership, initiative, unit cohesion
and gallantry.
Joshua Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor
for his actions of July 2, 1863. At Appomattox Courthouse almost
two years later, it was Brevet Major General Chamberlain, chosen
to accept the Confederate surrender, who ordered Union troops
to present arms to their former enemy as a mark of respect.
After the war Chamberlain was elected Governor of
Maine, and completed his military career as a major general in
the Maine National Guard. The heritage of the 20th Maine is carried
on today by the 133d Engineer Battalion, Maine Army National
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