The Hero of Little Round Top
Among her heroes, Maine will always have
a place for Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 'The Hero of
Little Round Top."
Little Round Top was a hill on the field
of Gettysburg, Pa., where a decisive battle of the Civil War was
fought and where the gallant troops of the North repulsed the
attacks of the Southern armies in a fierce, hand-to-hand
conflict that was marked by heroism and devotion, on both sides.
Here, on a hot day in July, two days
before the anniversary of American Independence of that year,
the troops of the 20th Maine Infantry, forming the extreme left
of the National defense, sustained the assaults of Gen.
Longstreet on the extreme right of the Confederate armies, and,
turning again on them, drove them from the field, saved the
heights and took many Confederate prisoners, leaving the
hill-top strewn with dead and wounded.
The leader of the Northern troops in
this heroic stand for the Union on Little Round Top was General
Chamberlain, a soldier, a scholar, a statesman, afterward a
Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College and ever a
gentleman of winsome and gentle manner, great in peace as he was
in war.
When the war broke out in 1861, Gen.
Chamberlain was only 28 years of age, a Professor at Bowdoin,
from which he had been graduated six years before. He was born
in Brewer, Maine, on a farm and, by his own scholarly
attainments, his fine bearing and his nobility of character, had
attained supremacy in many branches of work. When the war broke
out he immediately offered himself to his country. After he had
become famous, a lady once asked him how he happened to have
been in the Civil War. ''Madam," said he, "I didn't happen." He
did not "happen'' to be in the war; he went, as a soldier should
go, eager to be of service to human freedom. He was given a
lieutenant's commission; became Colonel; he saved Little Round
Top, the most important position of the great battle of
Gettysburg against a foe that outnumbered his troops three to
one, and before the end of the Civil War, he was a Major-General
of the Union armies.
He was a very handsome man, erect, tall, with a flashing eye, a
strong, musical voice. Apparently regardless of danger he was
willing to lead his men into any place where duty called. In the
bloody battle of Petersburg, he was leading his troops to
assault when a bullet passed through his body. He believed the
wound to be mortal. He felt his life-blood ebbing away with his
strength; yet he stood, leaning upon his sword, ordering the
advance. Thus he stood until the last man of his command had
passed him; and then, when no soldier of his should see him
fall, he fell to earth and was carried from the field, as though
dead. Six times was he wounded during the war and for all of his
life, afterward, he suffered continually. At Little Round Top,
he was fearfully wounded in the charge that passed up the hill
in which the Maine boys drove the Southern soldiers from the
hill, capturing over 800 Confederate prisoners in the assault.
As he lapsed into unconsciousness, he grasped firm hold of a
little bush beside which he had sunk. Years afterward, when
Gettysburg had become a memory, he still retained the
impressions of that moment and he said, "I felt that if I let go
of that little shrub, I should die. I thought that with release
of that, my soul would leave my body." And so, in the intervals
of pain and unconsciousness, he kept fast hold until he was
carried from the battlefield to be restored later to health and
strength.
From Gettysburg to Appomattox, Gen.
Chamberlain, in spite of all his wounds, was able to follow the
course of the victorious armies of the North. Appomattox was the
last great battle-field of the war. It was here that the Army of
General Robert E. Lee laid down its arms, stacked its
battle-flags and with generous terms of surrender from General
U. S. Grant, dispersed sadly to its homes. When the historic
moment for the surrender came and when it became the duty of
General Grant to receive Gen. Lee's sword in token of complete
surrender, it was Gen. Chamberlain who was deputed to receive
the sword of the great Southern general. Seated on his horse,
his uniform soiled by smoke and dust, Gen. Chamberlain watched
the ragged Confederate troops file by. As one Confederate color
bearer delivered up the tattered flag of his regiment, he burst
into tears, saying, ''Boys! You have all seen this old flag
before. I had rather give my own life than give up that flag."
The sentiment touched Gen. Chamberlain and he made the remark
that endeared him to the South and was repeated thousands of
times: "Brave fellow! Your spirit is that of the true soldier in
any army on any field. I only regret that I have not the
authority to bid you take that flag, carry it home, and preserve
it as a precious heirloom of a soldier who did his full duty."
General Chamberlain came home to Maine
after the war, one of the most honored and beloved of the
soldiers of that great struggle. His college made him its
President. His State made him four times a governor. He brought
back to Maine his wounds, his suffering and his wonderful spirit
of devotion to humanity. His hair was as white as snow. His face
was set in lines that indicated the stormy background of his
life. It was a suggestive picture to see him about the town of
Brunswick, driving his old war-horse, Charlie, one of six horses
that he rode in the service, five others having been shot under
him. Twice his horse saved the life of his master. Once a bullet
went into the horse's neck that otherwise would have struck his
rider and once the horse galloped from the field with his
unconscious master upon his back. Charlie died in Brunswick and
was buried near Gen. Chamberlain's summer home by the sea.
It has been said that the greatest
soldiers are often the tenderest and most considerate of men.
This has been true in many cases but not always. It was true in
the case of Gen. Chamberlain. He had difficulty in saying ''no"
to any person seeking his favor. He saw the high and noble
heroism of his foes, even though he felt the injustice of their
cause. He was a firm and lasting friend of General Lee of the
Southern Armies.
He was once cruising among the Casco Bay
Islands, when his yacht was visited by a party of picnickers.
Gen. Chamberlain joined them on the shore around their campfire
and here he told stories of the war. It was in the era when ill
feeling yet ran high between North and South and another member
of the party followed Gen. Chamberlain by severe arraignment of
the South.
In the party was a young lady from
Virginia whose feelings were deeply hurt by the tirade. One
person alone noticed; this was Gen. Chamberlain. With his
customary kindness and thoughtfulness, he began telling stories
of the bravery and generosity of his foe and so won back the
smiles to the young girl's face and left her full of admiration
for the generous and gallant general of the North.
These qualities of human sympathy made
him a magnetic orator and a wonderful writer. His oration on
Maine, delivered by him at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia in 1876, stands out as the finest historical
address ever delivered on any subject connected with Maine and
with perhaps no equal among the addresses of similar scope, in
the history of our country. He wrote the most beautiful English
and he spoke it as well. He was author of many books especially
connected with historical matters touching his native State and
the Civil War. Later in life, he recounted in a series of
magazine articles, subsequently put into a book, all of his war
time memories, and they are as interesting and as freshly
vigorous and picturesque as though written by a young man,
instead of by a man long past the allotted term of life.
Thousands of boys loved and admired Gen,
Chamberlain. He met them all over the world in his travels, boys
whom he had helped through college. A friend of Gen. Chamberlain
was once standing in front of the Parthenon, the ruin of the
renowned Greek temple at Athens, when the photographer, an
Armenian, hearing the word "Bowdoin College" asked for Gen.
Chamberlain. "I adore Gen. Chamberlain," said he. ''I was a
persecuted Armenian, He loaned me the money to give me my
education." This young man was a photographer of renown and a
photograph of the statue of Hermes, which he sent to Gen.
Chamberlain, hung in the Brunswick home of the General up to the
time of his death.
The death of Gen. Chamberlain occurred
at Brunswick in 1914, at the age of 86 years. The house where he
lived and died in Brunswick was the home of Longfellow, when he
lived and taught at Bowdoin. Gen. Chamberlain lies buried not
far from his Brunswick home. His funeral was a great military
and civic honor. He died in the love and veneration of his
country and of his State, having proved by his life and his
death the virtues as well as the victories of a Christian
soldier and a true and cultured gentleman.
|
Home of General Chamberlain in
Brunswick |
|