Who was Joshua Chamberlain?

A Bowdoin College professor (1828 to 1914) who became a Union general and led the 20th Maine at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

What happened at Little Round Top?

On 2 July 1863 Chamberlain's 20th Maine held the end of the Union line and, out of ammunition, drove back the Confederate attackers with a bayonet charge.

Did Chamberlain receive the Medal of Honor?

Yes, awarded in 1893 for his defence of Little Round Top.

What did Chamberlain do at Appomattox?

He commanded the Union troops at the formal surrender of Confederate arms and, by his own account, ordered them to salute the defeated soldiers.

What did Chamberlain do after the war?

He was elected governor of Maine four times and later served as president of Bowdoin College.

Joshua Chamberlain: the professor of Little Round Top

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain taught rhetoric and languages at a college in Maine. On 2 July 1863, at the far end of the Union line at Gettysburg, the professor ordered his out-of-ammunition regiment to fix bayonets and charge¹, in one of the most famous moments of the Civil War.

The professor

Born in Brewer, Maine, in 1828, Chamberlain became a professor² at Bowdoin College. In 1862, despite having no military training, he volunteered and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the new² 20th Maine infantry regiment.

Little Round Top

On the second day of Gettysburg, Chamberlain's regiment held the extreme left of the Union line on the hill of Little Round Top, with orders to hold at all costs. After repelling repeated Confederate attacks, with ammunition running out, he ordered, by most accounts², a bayonet charge down the slope that drove the attackers back (who started the charge is still debated). He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

Pencil sketch of a battlefield landscape seen from a hilltop with smoke and lines of troops — View from the summit of Little Round Top showing Longstreet's corps advancing on the Union V Corps position, a pencil sketch by the artist Edwin Forbes, 1863 (Library of Congress). Public domain

Wounded at Petersburg

In June 1864, leading a brigade in an assault at Petersburg, Chamberlain was shot through the hips and was not expected to live. General Ulysses S. Grant promoted him to brigadier general on the spot³. He recovered and returned to the field.

The salute at Appomattox

In April 1865 Chamberlain was chosen to command the Union troops at the formal surrender of the Confederate infantry's arms at Appomattox. By his own later account, he ordered his men to salute the defeated soldiers as they passed⁴, a gesture of respect that the Confederate general John B. Gordon returned.

Black and white photograph of Union soldiers posing in front of a brick courthouse — Union soldiers at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in April 1865, the month the Confederate infantry laid down its arms there. Public domain

After the war

Chamberlain served four terms as governor of Maine² and later as president of Bowdoin College. He died in 1914, his death linked to the wound he had received at Petersburg³ fifty years before.

Black and white portrait photograph of an older Joshua Chamberlain with a long moustache — Chamberlain as president of Bowdoin College, photographed by the Notman studio. Public domain

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

John J. Pullen, The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War (J. B. Lippincott, 1957). ↩
American Battlefield Trust, “Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain” ↩ a b c d
Alice Rains Trulock, In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 1992). ↩ a b
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915; Appomattox surrender of arms, 12 April 1865. ↩
Congressional Medal of Honor Society, “Joshua L. Chamberlain (citation and record)” ↩
Wikipedia, “Joshua Chamberlain”