On the first day of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College Ron White was one of the featured speakers. He is very well known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Now he was back to talk about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. His new book is
Ron White was gratified that right after his book was released, the National Park Service embarked on a new $13 Million Dollar project to preserve Little Round Top, which by 2024 is where people go to worship at the sacred spot of Chamberlain’s apotheosis. It will reopen in July of this year when the preservation is completed.
White says that Chamberlain “was a very unlikely military hero. Mild mannered, amiable, good humored. He served a professor way to the north in Maine.” The five foot ten inch professor was fluent in nine languages. “No one would have predicted that this learned professor would become the hero that we are talking about today,” says White. The speaker said that Chamberlain was idealistic, high spirited, courageous, impetuous and stubborn. He had to draw on all these characteristics on July 2, 1863 to triumph at Gettysburg.
By the early 20th Century, Chamberlain was almost forgotten. Then, in the late 20th Century, Michael Sharra introduced him to lay audiences, and Ken Burns and the movie Gettysburg gave him mass exposure. However, says White, the expanded fame of Chamberlain focused almost exclusively on what he did at Gettysburg.
Chamberlain was a product of the classic New England Puritan education, yet when he completed it, he was extremely critical of it. He arrived at Bowdoin College in 1848, a year of revolutionary change, but the school was very conservative. He had trouble socializing with his fellow students because he was a stutterer. He was often overcome with embarrassment because of his disability. Luckily, a professor helped him overcome it.
Chamberlain went to First Parish Church next to Bowdoin where Harriet Beecher Stowe attended. She read her drafts of Uncle Tom’s Cabin there and Chamberlain was influenced by the story. This was the first time Chamberlain thought about the horror of slavery.
While he was at the school he met his wife Fannie. She was smart and witty, and the two of them fell in love. After graduation, Chamberlain studied to become a minister, but before he could accept a parish he was offered a professorship at his old college. In 1861, the war broke out and he later joined the army, rising to command the 20th Maine. In 1864 was badly wounded at Fredericksburg and his doctors though he was mortally wounded. He wrote a letter home to Fannie to tell her that he will soon die and to reassure her that his love for her and their children burns within his heart. He recovers, but for the rest of his life, he suffers from the wound.
Ron White says he has examined the claim that Chamberlain accepted the surrender of the Confederates at Appomattox. He says that while there is no official order giving him the power, there were witnesses who said he took the surrender and ordered his men to respect the defeated Confederates. John B Gordon says in his memoir that Chamberlain did this, although whether it had any effect on this future leader of the Ku Klux Klan is unknown.
After the war, Chamberlain ran for governor and he won four times for the office. He was then offered the job of Bowdoin College president. He felt the college had “touched bottom” and had not kept up with the changing times. As the president he felt that the school needed to invest in the teaching of sciences. When the school board rejected this, he tried to resign, but the board relinquished.
Ron White says that Chamberlain greatest moment came in 1879. There had been an election dispute and while the election was being decided, Chamberlain stepped in to keep the government going. A mob surrounded him in Bangor. Chamberlain drew back his jacket and invited the mob to kill him if they must. He got them to back down and the dispute was resolved peacefully.
Ron White recommends you visit Chamberlain’s house in Maine, which I have reviewed here. Here is my photo tour of other sites associated with Chamberlain at his college.
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Thanks for posting this. I was likely going to ignore White’s book before reading your recap and hearing a recording of the talk on Addressing Gettysburg’s YouTube channel. I was originally skeptical that it was going to be another Gettysburg book masquerading as a biography and I’m excited to learn White presents a much fuller telling of Chamberlain’s entire story. Now I plan on tracking a copy down!