By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2024
“Presenting the Medal of Honor to Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 2 July 1863, while
serving with 20th Maine Infantry, in action at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
for daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the
Little Round Top against repeated assaults.”
— Medal of Honor citation, 1893.
“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is.
Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can,
and keep moving.”
— General Ulysses S. Grant.
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, age 34, a former college professor of rhetoric and oratory from Brewer, Maine, joined the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment as a lieutenant colonel in August 1862, and fought with them at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, from December 11 to 15, 1862. He was promoted to full colonel on June 20, 1863, and took command of the battle-tested regiment.
Only 11 days later, on July 1st, 1863, Chamberlain and his 20th Maine Regiment arrived at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the beginning of the massive battle there, the largest of the entire war, and at four o’clock PM, they were positioned at the extreme left flank of the Union lines, near the base of Little Round Top, a 663-foot-tall (per GoogleEarth), rocky, wooded hill facing west, toward the front lines of battle.
Directly opposing the 20th Maine was the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment under Confederate Colonel William C. Oates, alongside the 47th Alabama Infantry Regiment, both poised to press an attack across the base of the northern slope of Round Top (or Big Round Top), a larger, 776-foot, heavily wooded hill immediately to the southwest.
Little Round Top battle map. Hlj, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
GoogleEarth satellite image of battle area, dated 3/8/2020. Photo by GoogleEarth, 2024
On July 2, 1863, the very hot (when you’re wearing a long-sleeve, double-layered, wool uniform), 81-degree, second day of battle, Federal forces were recovering from initial setbacks, and attempting to hold the line south of the town of Gettysburg, with their backs to Taneytown Road.
Sensing a moment of weakness and vulnerability by the Union defenders, Oates and his 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment charged wildly through the gap with 499 men (actually, over 632 men, including the adjoining, 47th Alabama Infantry Regiment to their left) between the two hills, where the terrain dips down to 580 feet elevation, or 28 feet below Chamberlain and his 386 Maine troopers, at about 6:00 PM.
Chamberlain instantly understood that he needed to hold that vulnerable left flank “at all costs” (his own words) as intense fighting began in the forest. He later wrote that, “We opened a brisk fire at close range, which was so sudden and effective they soon fell back among the rocks and low trees in the valley, only to burst forth again with a shout, and rapidly advance, firing as they came.”
In fact, during the next hour, the Confederate troops of the 15th Alabama assaulted the 20th Maine no less than six times, resulting in hand-to-hand combat at point-blank range in many cases, but Chamberlain and his men valiantly held their defensive positions against all odds, expending well over 18,000+ rounds of ammunition (an average of 60 rounds per surviving soldier) in the incredible effort. During this time, the 20th Maine sustained casualties of 29 killed, 91 wounded, and five men missing in action.
Chamberlain reported that, “From that moment began a struggle fierce and bloody beyond any that I have witnessed, and which lasted in all its fury, a full hour…At times I saw around me more of the enemy than of my own men…In the midst of this struggle, our ammunition utterly failed.”
Finally, with his men rapidly running out of ammunition, Chamberlain realized that they couldn’t possibly withstand a seventh enemy charge, so he had them “refuse the line,” and form an L-shaped battle line instead, later recording that, “Desperate as the chances were, there was nothing for it but to take the offensive.”
Taking an exceptionally audacious gamble, he shouted a single word, “Bayonets!” From his report of the day: “At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough.” His soldiers fully understood the gravity of the moment, and affixed sharp, imposing, gleaming bayonets with 18-inch blades to the muzzles of their 1853 Enfield Rifle-Muskets in .577-caliber. Chamberlain then boldly led them downhill in a furious, head-on, bayonet charge that struck terror into the hearts of the stunned Confederates just 30 yards away. Colonel Oates ordered a hasty retreat in shocked disarray.
Chamberlain later wrote that, “My officers and men understood (my) wishes so well that this movement was executed under fire, without giving the enemy any occasion to seize or even to suspect their advantage…This hazardous maneuver was so admirably executed by my men…The enemy’s first line scarcely tried to run; they stood amazed, threw down their loaded arms and surrendered in whole companies.”
The 20th Maine stormed down the small hill, with their left wing wheeling around like a hinge, creating a simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver, in which they captured 386 Confederate prisoners from four different regiments (including 101 men from the 15th Alabama alone), and saved the Union flank. Chamberlain was slightly wounded when a bullet struck his sword scabbard and bruised his thigh.
He owned an 1860 Moore’s Patent Firearms Co. (of New York) S.A. Belt Revolver (seven shots) with six-inch barrel in .32 Rimfire (8×14.6mm), ornately engraved with his initials, “J.L.C.,” on the backstrap, which he probably used in battle at Little Round Top, since most officers were permitted to provide their own handguns. This weapon fired a 90-grain, .316-caliber, round-nose, hollow-base, lead bullet at the very low velocity of about 650 feet per second. It’s currently in the collection of the Maine Military Historical Society.
Private Theodore Gerrish, a soldier with the 20th Maine, wrote in 1883 that, “The rebels were confounded at the movement. We struck them with a fearful shock. They recoil, stagger, break, and run, and like avenging demons, our men pursue.” Chamberlain reported that, “150 of the enemy were found killed and wounded in our front.”
In the midst of the wild charge, Chamberlain came face-to-face with Confederate Second Lieutenant Robert Horn Wicker, age 25, of the 15th Alabama, who fired his 1851 Colt Navy percussion revolver (in .36-caliber, #66745, made in 1857 under Colt license in London, England, with 7.5-inch barrel) at his face, but narrowly missed. Chamberlain steadfastly raised his long, 1850 Army Staff and Field Officer saber, with its finely engraved, 32-inch blade, to Wicker’s throat, and gallantly accepted his weapon, and his surrender, relating the story later:
“The commanding officer (2Lt. Wicker) I happened to confront, coming on fiercely, sword in one hand and big, Navy revolver in the other, fires one barrel almost in my face; but seeing (my) quick saber-point at his throat, reverses arms, gives sword and pistol into my hands, and yields himself prisoner. I…kept the pistol with its loaded barrels (meaning chambers), which I thought might come handy soon, as indeed it did…(and they) threw up their hands, calling out, ‘We surrender. Don’t kill us!’” This captured revolver, also engraved with Chamberlain’s initials on the bottom strap at some later point, is still on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine.
The original saber/sword that Colonel Chamberlain carried into combat at Little Round Top is displayed at the Thomas Hill House Museum in Bangor, Maine. He drew the saber after running out of ammunition for his Moore Belt Revolver.
His Confederate adversary, Colonel Oates, would later write that, “We ran like a herd of wild cattle…There never were harder fighters than the 20th Maine men and their gallant colonel. His skill and persistency, and the great bravery of his men, saved Little Round Top and the Army of the Potomac from defeat.”
After the Battle of Gettysburg, Chamberlain was nicknamed the “Lion of Little Round Top.” He was rapidly promoted to brigadier general in June 1864, and brevet major general in March 1865. He was seriously wounded in the hip and groin with a .58-caliber Minié ball at the Second Battle of Petersburg on June 18, 1864, and was expected to die, but miraculously recovered, instead, and was personally selected to receive the Confederate surrender of arms at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia on April 12, 1865. Throughout the war, Chamberlain served in 24 battles and numerous skirmishes, was cited for bravery four times, had six horses shot from under him, and was wounded six times.
Afterward, Chamberlain served as governor of Maine from 1867 to 1871, and president of Bowdoin College from 1871 to 1883. Then, he practiced law in New York City for a time, and spent his last decades writing and speaking about the Civil War.
In 1893, a full 30 years after his bold, bayonet charge at Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain was officially awarded the exalted Medal of Honor “for daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults.” The 20th Maine’s regimental color sergeant, First Sergeant Andrew Jackson Tozier, at his colonel’s side throughout the savage battle, was also awarded the Medal of Honor for the same action.
Chamberlain later wrote that, “In the center, wreathed in battle smoke, stood the Color-Sergeant, Andrew Tozier. His color-staff planted in the ground at his side, the upper part clasped in his elbow, so holding the flag upright, with musket and cartridges seized from the fallen comrade at his side, he was defending his sacred trust in the manner of the songs of chivalry. It was a stirring picture, its import still more stirring.” At the conclusion of the fight, Colonel Chamberlain offered Tozier an officer’s commission as a second lieutenant, but Tozier modestly declined.
Interestingly enough, Chamberlain wrote in his 1913 article, Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg, that his regiment was stumbling about in the darkness at a fork in the northbound, Taneytown Road, trying to reach Gettysburg at night on July 1st, when, “Suddenly, the clouds parted, and the moon shone down upon a horseman wearing a bright coat and a tricorn(er) hat. Mounted on a magnificent, pale horse, he cantered down one of the roads, branching off before them. Turning slightly toward them, he waved them to follow.”
Hundreds of soldiers clearly saw this tall, ethereal phantom on horseback, emitting an eerie glow, and they followed without question as he led them toward Little Round Top. Some of the soldiers remarked that this horseman bore a very strong resemblance to known paintings of George Washington.
Then, at the critical moment in the battle, when Chamberlain’s men ran out of ammunition and felt real fear for the first time, the mysterious, tall man on a pale horse appeared once again, wearing an old-fashioned uniform and tri-corner hat. Chamberlain wrote, “Suddenly, an imposing figure stood in front of the line, exhorting them to follow. The rays of the afternoon sun set his upraised sword aflame.” Soldiers on both sides definitely saw him, and later reported the incident. The Confederates fired desperate volleys at this commanding and highly conspicuous figure, but he never fell from his white stallion. This time, there was no doubt at all that it was George Washington.
The 20th Maine was filled with hope, inspiration, and bravery, and at that moment, Chamberlain led his daring, bayonet charge into history. After the battle, there were wild rumors about the strange apparition, and a formal investigation by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, with many eyewitness testimonies. Chamberlain and his men all held fast to their sworn accounts, but no official conclusions were ever drawn. Soon after the battle, Chamberlain remarked, “Whether from earthly or unearthly voice one cannot feel quite sure, that the august form of Washington had been seen that afternoon at sunset riding over the Gettysburg hills…I half-believed it myself.”
George Washington, did, in fact, own and ride a pale-gray, half-Arabian stallion named Blueskin, which, due to his white hair coat, was the horse most often portrayed in artwork depicting Washington on horseback, and was one of Washington’s two primary mounts during the Revolutionary War. Washington definitely favored white horses, and he continually sought more for purchase, even in his final years. Two of his other famous horses, or chargers, were named Nelson (chestnut-colored), ridden in battle, and Prescott (white), a parade horse, but Prescott was purchased in 1789, six years after the war ended.
Later in his life, Joshua Chamberlain explained the two ghostly incidents this way: “We know not what mystical power may be possessed by those who are now bivouacking with the dead. I only know the effect, but I dare not explain or deny the cause. I do believe that we were enveloped by the power of the other world that day, and who shall say that Washington was not among the number of those who aided the country that he founded?”
Chamberlain was certainly a brilliant scholar and linguist (fluent in nine languages, other than English: Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the native language of Jesus Christ), later a state governor, college president, lawyer, and highly-decorated war hero, whose judgement and credibility were beyond question. Whatever he and his men, and even the Confederates, saw in battle at Little Round Top was something that convinced even this exceptionally courageous officer to write that, “I dare not explain or deny the cause.”
Joshua Chamberlain died on February 24, 1914, at the age of 85, from complications due to his wartime wounds at Petersburg. He was the last Civil War veteran to die as a result of wounds from the war, according to the Department of Defense, and was considered by some to be the last casualty of the war. Chamberlain was brilliantly portrayed by actor Jeff Daniels in the noted films Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003). These significantly enhanced Chamberlain’s reputation worldwide, making him a more popular and well-known figure, and a true American hero for the ages.
* * *
Warren Gray is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. He served in Europe and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author and historian, having visited the 20th Maine battlefield position at Little Round Top four times.