Joshua Chamberlain -- a Great Leader

Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828 in Brewer, Maine. He grew up in a small home in a largely farming and shipbuilding area. He was the oldest of five children. He was raised in a Puritan Christian home with strong morals. When he was young he was very fond of the outdoors and enjoyed swimming, riding horses, sailing, and other things. Chamberlain was known for being very shy when he was young.

Working on the family farm doing hard work helped for form Chamberlains tough work ethic. Upon request by his father Chamberlain was pressured into joining the army. His father had once been a lieutenant colonel. This did not excite him very much and upon influence from his mother, decided to study to become a missionary.

Chamberlain began first using Joshua as his first name in college. He attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. He was an accomplished orator at Bowdoin and won several awards. He was known for his strong views and that he would stick up for them no matter who was challenging. He was also an accomplished musician, playing the organ, bass viol, and also singing.

In 1855 Chamberlain married Fanny Adams. He had met her at the church he attended and noticed her because she played the organ. Adams was a good amount older than him, three years, but this obviously did not matter. Chamberlain proposed in 1852 and they were married three years later after Chamberlain had graduated with both his degree from Bangor Theological Seminary and Bowdoin College. He soon thereafter became a professor at the college he had graduated from, Bowdoin. He was a very smart man in more than one aspect of education and taught everything in his time at Bowdoin except math. He was literate in at least 8 other languages besides English due to his education to become a missionary in foreign countries.

Chamberlain and his wife had five children together, two died very young and one was born too prematurely. The two that lived to an older age were a daughter, Grace, and son, Harold.

Joshua Chamberlain had a rich history of military service in his family. Two of his great-grandfathers served time during the American Revolutionary War period. His grandfather also fought during the War of 1812 some years later. His father, who had served as a lieutenant colonel, served in the 1839 Aroostook War.

When the Civil War broke out, Chamberlain felt strong feelings to join due to his abolitionist beliefs, along with many other Bowdoin alumni that he knew. He asked for a leave of absence from teaching supposedly for studying languages in Europe but then joined the Union Army soon after. He was offered a high ranking position with the 20^th Maine but turned it down, wishing to start lower and work his way up. He was named the lieutenant colonel of the 20^th Maine regiment of the Union Army.

Chamberlain fought at several of the most important engagements of the entire war. He saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was eventually promoted to colonel of the 20^th Maine. Chamberlain's family was much involved with his military service with one of his brothers serving as a chaplain and another as an officer in his regiment.

The first order for Chamberlain and his regiment was to march to Antietam. The first actual engagement that the 20^th Maine was involved in, however, was at Shepherdstown Ford. They participated in more fairly small similar engagements. The regiment fought in a important Union defeat at Fredericksburg and led the retreat. During the summer of 1863, after a relatively quiet winter for the 20^th, Chamberlain was promoted again to the Maine regiment's Colonel.

As Chamberlain wrote about in "Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg" and has been seen in the movie, Gettysburg, Chamberlain took over the 20^th Maine and was given the duty of getting another regiment, the 118^th Pennsylvania to fight. This Pennsylvania regiment was refusing to fight and the order was placed upon Chamberlain to get them to fight, or to shoot them dead. He convinced them to come back and fight. This showed a lot about Chamberlain's character and his strong ability to lead his men.

Perhaps Joshua Chamberlain's most well known claim to fame were his heroic acts at the Battle Of Gettysburg with his holding of a strategic point for the Union Army, Little Round Top.

Little Round Top was a hill at the far left of the Union line at Gettysburg. This position was very important because it the Confederates flanked the position, the entire Union line could fall. Chamberlain and his group of men were put in charge of making sure that this did not happen. They were ordered to man Little Round Top on July 2, 1863 in the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. Confederate brigades led by General John Bell attacked constantly in attempt to take Little Round Top from Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine. In the most famous event of this engagement, Chamberlain, seeing that his ammunition was almost gone and his men depleting, led a charge down the hill with bayonets to fight off the Confederates. Chamberlain was ordered to hold the hill at all costs and he did. They charge proved extremely effective as many Confederate soldiers were killed and many more captured.

This event has gone down in history and is possibly the most well known event in the most famous battle of the Civil War, The Battle of Gettysburg. Chamberlain was featured in numerous books and the movie, Gettysburg. If it weren't for Joshua Chamberlain's heroics the outcome for the Union Army could have been potentially disastrous. After Gettysburg, Chamberlain was sent home to Maine due to illness caused by Malaria. He went back to his duties in May of 1864.

Later on more was revealed about Chamberlain' heroics when he published his story of the battle, "Through Blood And Fire At Gettysburg." In this article he honored the bravery of the men that fought on that day.

In June of 1864, Chamberlain was wounded in the battle of Petersburg and was told that he would die from his wounds. He recovered from his injuries and returned to the battlefield by November of that year. Chamberlain did not want to give up now and decided to stay on through the entire war, even though many people told him to resign.

He also wrote about a particular engagement later on where his brigade got into an intense battle. Chamberlain was wounded in the fight and was almost taken prisoner by the Confederates, but escaped by actually posing as a Confederate officer. He pushed his men onward and captured the White Oak Road, a strategic point at the battle. For this great leadership he would receive the honor of being breveted Major General. Another great accomplishment in battle came on April 1, 1865 when Chamberlain and his men captured over 1000 Confederate soldiers and officers. After this battle they kept on pushing under Joshua Chamberlain's leadership and ended up at Appomattox Court House.

On April 12, 1865, Chamberlain was given the honor of receiving the surrender from Confederate General John Gordon at Appomattox. Out of all the Union Army officers, General Grant chose Chamberlain to preside over the event. Chamberlain was reunited with his beloved 20^th Maine and in a very famous gesture, had all of his men salute the surrendering Confederate soldiers. This was an act that would never be forgotten by General Gordon or Chamberlain. He was criticized for this respectful gesture toward the Confederates but stuck by his action for the rest of his life.

Joshua Chamberlain had an extensive Civil War career. He had fought in 20 battles and a large amount of small firefights while being wounded six times during the Civil War alone.

The war was over and Joshua Chamberlain returned to small Bowdoin College as a hero. Life was changing for Chamberlain and after starting teaching again, he became bored of it and decided to purse something else. His next move was a career in politics and his large popularity in the state of Maine earned him the Governorship in 1866. He served four terms of one years length as the Governor of Maine and took his duty very seriously, attacking major issues during a time when politicians were quiet about such things.

After serving as Governor, Chamberlain went back to Bowdoin as the president of the college. He served in this position for 12 years. He was known during his presidency at Bowdoin for pushing his strong ideas to a very conservative school. He encouraged regular military drills for students and classes in science and engineering; this was not popular at the time.

The end of Chamberlain's life would have him working as a U.S. Surveyor of Customs while maintaining a career in writing about his war experiences. He was also involved with the selling of real estate in Florida. His wife, Fanny, died in 1905 and Chamberlain lived another 9 years after her. Joshua Chamberlain died on February 24, 1914 and was buried in his home of Brunswick, Maine. He lived to be 86 years old.