In 1856 Main native Joshua L. Chamberlain was teaching rhetoric and modern languages at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, where has received his own education. Chamberlain’s military background and knowledge were limited and mostly connected to his ancestors’ roles in the Aroostook War of 1839 and the War of 1812, in which his father and grandfather took part in respectively (Calhoun, 2). Other than this indirect experience with military conflict, Chamberlain also attended military school for a short period of time at Ellsworth. Despite his scant knowledge of soldiering and military strategy, the role played by then-Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain in the action at Little Round Top, Gettysburg, would result in Union victory and his receiving the Medal of Honor for gallantry at Gettysburg from Congress.
The patriotic background of his upbringing made Chamberlain feel obligated to devote his efforts to saving the Union when tensions between North and South erupted into Civil War in 1861. Officials at Bowdoin tried to deter Chamberlain from engaging in military pursuits by offering him a year’s travel with pay In Europe in 1862 to study languages, an offer Chamberlain rejected in favor of volunteering his military services to the governor of Maine (Calhoun, 2). Within a short time, Chamberlain was made Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
From 1862 until 1865, Chamberlain would see a great deal of military action. He participated in two dozen battles and a variety of smaller confrontations, being wounded six times – once, near mortally – and six horses were shot from beneath him (Calhoun 2). Despite a storied military history during the Civil War, Chamberlain’s military career rests upon two major events, one involving armed conflict and the other signifying the end of the Civil War and Union victory. When Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, Union General Ulysses S. Grant elected Chamb...