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Remembering one of Gettysburg's heroes.... [1]
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Date: 2025-07-02
One hundred and sixty-two years ago today, two great armies were engaged in a desperate battle in and around the peaceful little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One of these armies fought to destroy the United States in order to perpetuate the most cruel and demonizing form of chattel slavery ever known. This army, the Army of Northern Virginia, was led by a highly competent slaveholder general, Robert E. Lee, ably assisted by others such as James Longstreet and JEB Stuart. The soldiers they commanded were brave and skilled fighters, with a string of victories behind them. It’s one of the tragedies of the Civil War that such a courageous and competent force was assembled to commit treason in defense of slavery.
Their opponents, the Army of the Potomac, was well trained and well supplied, but they had been led by a series of utterly incompetent generals. The man most responsible for their training and organization, George McClellan, was good at administration but a moral coward in battle. His overcautious and passive leadership imbued in the Army of the Potomac a hesitancy and lack of aggression that persisted even after the command had been given to U.S. Grant. And on this day they were commanded by George Meade, who had been elevated to his position only a week before. Imaging taking over the reins of an army with a history of defeat and immediately having to face the ever-victorious Rebels.
But this day, these three days (July 1 – 3), the outcome would be different. Now the Union forces were fighting not in Virginia but on Union soil, defending against an invasion. And while they had a history of losses, no one could doubt their courage. Six months earlier at Fredericksburg they had been ordered to assault, uphill, a Confederate position (Marye’s Heights), with veteran Rebel troops firmly ensconced behind a stone wall. It was suicidal, a slaughter. They made 13 assaults before their monumentally unqualified commander, Ambrose Burnside, called it off
And they had something else to fight for. Six months earlier, as he had promised in September of 1862, President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Now they were not only fighting to preserve the Union against traitors, they were fighting for freedom for the enslaved millions in the South.
On the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, the two armies basically stumbled into each other. Neither knew where the other was. The Confederates had more men closer, and defeated the Union forces they faced. During the night, however, the rest of the Union army reached the field. The Union enjoyed a very strong defensive position by the morning of July 2. Their forces held Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, and from there the Union lines followed Cemetery Ridge south to two hills, Big Round Top and Little Round Top. On a map the position resembled a fishhook, with the hills at the north forming the curved hook and the lines down Cemetery Ridge forming the shank.
That day, Confederate forces under Longstreet attacked the bottom of the fishhook. There was tremendous combat at places known as Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard and the Wheatfield. In the midst of the battle, Southern forces mounted an attack on Little Round Top, at the very end of the Union line, which had inexplicably been left undefended. Seeing this, Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren promptly order the first brigade he saw, Col. Strong Vincent’s brigade, to occupy and defend Little Round Top. The four regiments of this brigade were strung out along the hill, with the farthest left regiment being the 20th Maine under the command of Lt. Col Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
Chamberlain had been a college professor at Bowdoin College before the war, but left to enlist in the Union army. He had some combat experience, but nothing could fully prepare him for the situation he faced. His troops were literally the tail end of the Union lines. Were the Rebels able to get around him and occupy the hill, it would have allowed them to look down on the entire Union position. Get some artillery up there, and the Union lines would have suffered enfilade fire which might well have resulted in defeat.
The 20th Maine endured multiple assaults from Confederate troops from Texas and Alabama, which they resisted while suffering high casualties. When the last Rebel charge was made, Chamberlain’s men were out of ammunition. So this college professor issued the order to fix bayonets and, instead of defending, charged down the hill. They swept the Rebels from the field. In doing so, they won the battle of Little Round Top, and may well have won the Battle of Gettysburg and the entire Civil War.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was promoted to command the entire brigade. Later, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg. At Petersburg in June of 1864, he was shot through the pelvis, the ball entering at one hip, transversing his body and damaging his bladder, and exiting the other hip. He leaned on his sword, staying upright, not wanting to demoralize his men by collapsing. He was expected to die, and was promoted to brigadier general to honor him before he died. Incredibly, he survived and returned to duty, although his wounds never fully healed and would plague him the rest of his life. Altogether he was wounded 6 times.
At Appomattox, Chamberlain was chosen by Grant to receive the surrender of the Confederate troops. After they had stacked arms and were marching away, Chamberlain ordered the troops under his command to salute their defeated enemies. He was the embodiment of Chaucer’s “perfect, gentle knight.”
After the war, Chamberlain was four times elected governor of Maine. He would also become President of Bowdoin College. In 1914, at the age of 84, he died as a result of the last of many infections caused by the wound he suffered 50 years before. He was the last casualty of the Civil War.
At a time when bigots and right-wing nuts venerate Lee, Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and the rest of the disgraceful Confederate cause, we should remember true American heroes like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Few people did more for their country and for the cause of liberty than he.
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