Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a college professor from Maine who became a Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He is best known for commanding the 20th Maine Infantry in the defence of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, where his regiment’s stand became one of the battle’s most celebrated episodes.

Chamberlain rose to brigadier general, was severely wounded at Petersburg and was selected to receive the formal surrender of Confederate infantry at Appomattox. After the war he served four terms as governor of Maine and later became president of Bowdoin College.

Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen’s alternate-history Gettysburg keeps Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain among the real Union commanders whose decisions must be reconsidered once the battle departs from the historical outcome. Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals follows Chamberlain from civilian life into Union service as the war creates the officers who will meet at Gettysburg. Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels places him on Little Round Top, using his defence of the Union left to explore leadership, exhaustion and the moral language with which soldiers understood the war. Jeff Shaara’s The Last Full Measure carries Chamberlain through the final campaigns, Appomattox and the formal reception of Confederate surrender, making him one of the figures through whom the trilogy considers reconciliation after victory.