The Hero of Little Round Top: The Life and Legacy of Joshua Chamberlain

By Charles River Editors

For much of the 20th century, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s life and career remained mostly obscure, outside of dedicated scholars of the Battle of Gettysburg and alumni and students of Bowdoin College. Colonel Chamberlain had led the 20th Maine regiment at Gettysburg, holding the extreme left of the Union line on Little Round Top, and he continued to rise up the ranks toward the end of the war until he was commanding a brigade and present at the surrender ceremony of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. After the Civil War, Chamberlain served as Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College.

 

Chamberlain had a respectable Civil War career and life, but he had been largely forgotten in the decades after the Civil War, with the focus on more influential commanding generals and their principal subordinates. Then a remarkable thing happened with the 1974 publication of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, a Pulitzer Prize winning historical fiction that focuses on the Battle of Gettysburg and its influential generals and leaders. In one fell swoop, Michael Shaara breathed life back into the reputations of men like John Buford and Joshua Chamberlain, cast as the Union heroes of Day 1 and Day 2 respectively that made victory at Gettysburg possible. In the novel, Chamberlain’s regiment holds the high ground against a series of desperate Confederate charges, and when they ran out of gunpowder, Chamberlain ordered a brave bayonet charge that drove the Confederates in their front from the fight. With that, the Union’s left flank was saved.

 

Thanks to Shaara, Ken Burns’ popular Civil War documentary prominently featured Chamberlain’s involvement at Gettysburg, and when Shaara’s novel was turned into the critically acclaimed 1993 movie Gettysburg, interest in Chamberlain and the 20th Maine swelled. Chamberlain’s reputation and role in the Civil War had been completely revived, and the monument to the 20th Maine on Little Round Top became one of the premier tourist spots on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Naturally, once more attention was focused on Chamberlain’s record, historians started to scrutinize his service and post-war writings, leading to ensuing controversies over just what happened on Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. Furthermore, there still remains debate over Chamberlain’s participation during the surrender ceremony of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

Whether definitive answers are ever reached, there is no doubt that Chamberlain and the 20th Maine will continue to hold a secure and strong reputation in the coming decades. The Hero of Little Round Top chronicles the life and career of Joshua Chamberlain, examining his Civil War service and the debates over it, as well as analyzing his legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Chamberlain like you never have before, in no time at all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles River Editors
• Release date: May 15, 2025
• ISBN: 9781475333343

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The Hero of Little Round Top: The Life and Legacy of Joshua Chamberlain

By Charles River Editors

File:Chamberlain Memorial.jpg

About Charles River Editors

Charles River Editors was founded by Harvard and MIT alumni to provide superior editing and original writing services, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, Charles River Editors republishes civilization’s greatest literary works, bringing them to a new generation via ebooks.

Introduction

File:Joshua Chamberlain - Brady-Handy.jpg

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914)

For much of the 20th century, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s life and career remained mostly obscure, outside of dedicated scholars of the Battle of Gettysburg and alumni and students of Bowdoin College. Colonel Chamberlain had led the 20th Maine regiment at Gettysburg, holding the extreme left of the Union line on Little Round Top, and he continued to rise up the ranks toward the end of the war until he was commanding a brigade and present at the surrender ceremony of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. After the Civil War, Chamberlain served as Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College.

Chamberlain had a respectable Civil War career and life, but he had been largely forgotten in the decades after the Civil War, with the focus on more influential commanding generals and their principal subordinates. Then a remarkable thing happened with the 1974 publication of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, a Pulitzer Prize winning historical fiction that focuses on the Battle of Gettysburg and its influential generals and leaders. In one fell swoop, Michael Shaara breathed life back into the reputations of men like John Buford and Joshua Chamberlain, cast as the Union heroes of Day 1 and Day 2 respectively that made victory at Gettysburg possible. In the novel, Chamberlain’s regiment holds the high ground against a series of desperate Confederate charges, and when they ran out of gunpowder, Chamberlain ordered a brave bayonet charge that drove the Confederates in their front from the fight. With that, the Union’s left flank was saved.

Thanks to Shaara, Ken Burns’ popular Civil War documentary prominently featured Chamberlain’s involvement at Gettysburg, and when Shaara’s novel was turned into the critically acclaimed 1993 movie Gettysburg, interest in Chamberlain and the 20th Maine swelled. Chamberlain’s reputation and role in the Civil War had been completely revived, and the monument to the 20th Maine on Little Round Top became one of the premier tourist spots on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Naturally, once more attention was focused on Chamberlain’s record, historians started to scrutinize his service and post-war writings, leading to ensuing controversies over just what happened on Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. Furthermore, there still remains debate over Chamberlain’s participation during the surrender ceremony of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox.

Whether definitive answers are ever reached, there is no doubt that Chamberlain and the 20th Maine will continue to hold a secure and strong reputation in the coming decades. The Hero of Little Round Top chronicles the life and career of Joshua Chamberlain, examining his Civil War service and the debates over it, as well as analyzing his legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Chamberlain like you never have before, in no time at all.

The Hero of Little Round Top: The Life and Legacy of Joshua Chamberlain

About Charles River Editors

Introduction

Chapter 1: Early Years

The Chamberlain Family Tree

Childhood in Maine

Major Whiting’s Military School: 1843?- 184?

Bowdoin College: 1848-1852

Bangor Theological Seminary: 1852-1855

Chapter 2: Life before the Civil War

Marriage

Early Professional Life

Chapter 3: Politics and the Election of 1860

Bleeding Kansas

Harpers Ferry

The Election of 1860

Chapter 4: Fort Sumter, April 1861

Chapter 5: Chamberlain Joins the War

Chamberlain’s Opinion on the Subject of Civil War

The 20th Maine

Second Bull Run (Second Manassas)

Chapter 6: The Maryland Campaign

The War Comes to Maryland

Antietam

Battle of Shepherdstown

Chapter 7: The Fredericksburg Campaign

Lincoln Fires McClellan

The Battle of Fredericksburg

Chapter 8: The Chancellorsville Campaign

Chapter 9: The Pennsylvania Campaign

The Battle of Brandy Station

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain

Lee’s Invasion of Pennsylvania

July 1, 1863

July 2, 1863

July 3, 1863

Chapter 10: The Overland Campaign

Battle of the Wilderness

Spotsylvania

Cold Harbor

Chapter 11: The Siege of Petersburg

Chamberlain Killed in Action?

Battle of Lewis’ Farm and Battle of Five Forks

Chapter 12: The Appomattox Campaign

Chapter 13: The Post-Civil War Years, 1865 to 1914

Personal Life

Political Career

Academic Career

Federal Service

Business Endeavors

Author and Lecturer

Accolades

Other Interests

Military Life, Later Years

Death and Homage

Chapter 14: Chamberlain’s Legacy/Epilogue

Bibliography

Chapter 1: Early Years

The Chamberlain Family Tree

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, known almost exclusively as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain in his lifetime, was born on September 8, 1828 in Brewer, Maine, the first of five children born to Joshua Chamberlain and Sarah Dupree (also Depuis) Brastow. Lawrence’s father, the second in a line of Joshuas, was a farmer by trade who served as a lieutenant colonel in a militia unit during Maine’s Aroostook War with New Brunswick, Canada in 1839. His mother was the fourth daughter to Charles Dupuis, an officer in the Revolutionary War.

The Chamberlain family name is said to date back to the 12th century, when one Richard de Tankerville, grandson of a Norman knight, became chamberlain to King Stephen of England. In those times, chamberlain related to two possible positions: that of an official charged with management of the royal living quarters, or an official who collected rent and revenues--essentially, a treasurer. Thus the name Chamberlain derived from the title or occupation.

Both of Lawrence’s great-grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War, and one of them, Ebenezer Chamberlain, was also a volunteer soldier from New Hampshire during the French and Indian War. Lawrence’s grandfather (also named Joshua), a prosperous shipbuilder, was a colonel in the local militia during the War of 1812 who was subsequently court-martialed but later exonerated for his role in the disgraceful Battle of Hampden that led to the sacking of Bangor and Brewer, Maine by British forces (but ultimately ensured that eastern Maine would remain part of the United States). Thus, prior to Lawrence Joshua, there had been a long tradition of military service in the Chamberlain family dating back generations.

Lawrence’s siblings were Horace (1834--1861), Sarah (1836--?), John (who served in the Civil War as a chaplain; 1838--1867), and Thomas Davee (who was an officer under Lawrence and fought at Gettysburg; 1841--1896).

If Chamberlain was named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain after other family members, why was he known as Lawrence Joshua during his life? Interestingly, while naming his son Joshua in honor of his father, the senior Joshua favored the name Lawrence because his boyhood hero was Captain James Lawrence, known in history as the man who after being mortally wounded while commanding the USS Chesapeake in the War of 1812 uttered the famous dying words,