Tag Archives: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

New biography explains why Strong Vincent was “The Lion of Round Top”

Erie, Pennsylvania historian Hans G. Myers brings to life an overlooked Gettysburg hero with his new book, The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War, but readers must look past another officer altogether to learn about the warrior who led the 3rd Brigade […]

Chamberlain an officer? You gotta be kidding me!

As the 16th Maine Infantry slowly coalesced at August in summer ’62, the War Department asked Maine to raise three additional infantry regiments. Each would number around 1,000 men, plus 35-37 officers (if you counted the surgeon and assistant surgeon). Sitting at a desk in Brunswick on Monday, July 14, the 33-year-old professor of modern […]

Appomattox Road: “The awful tide was rolling toward us” — Chamberlain and the 20th Maine at Battle of White Oak Road

  “Daylight dawned, cold, wet, and cheerless” in the 20th Maine Infantry’s temporary camp west of Petersburg, Va. on Thursday, March 30, 1865, said Pvt. Theodore Gerrish of Co. H. The previous day, elements of the 1st Division, 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac, had captured the Confederate earthworks stretching across the Quaker Road near […]

Appomattox Road: “A heavy blow struck me just above the left breast” — Joshua Chamberlain at Quaker Road

  The end was approaching. By late March 1865, “we felt sure that he (Ulysses Simpson Grant) was preparing some great movement, and this must be still to the left, to cut [Robert E.] Lee’s communications and envelop his existing lines,” said Brig. Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 5th […]

Chamberlain recognized a Carmel soldier for his service

Charles Preble spent three years fighting for the Union, and all he got for his efforts was a lousy wound and a fancy testimonial from Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The enigmatic Charles Melvin Preble was 21 when he lifted his right hand to “solemnly swear, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United […]