Army Life In Chamberlain S 20th Maine

Every great battle takes on new perspectives and meaning when viewed from the prone position of the private soldier, as opposed to the broad sweep of after-battle reports. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spottslyvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg...Theodore Gerrish was at them all with Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine Regiment. His vivid, compassionate, and often humorous telling is from the spot on the field where the minie-balls are thickest and the cannonading is deafening. This is one of the best private-soldier memoirs of the American Civil War in its scope and its minute details. The views Gerrish provides at the end of famous officers as seen from the private soldier's point of view include Grant, Meade, Hooker, Josuah Lawrence Chamberlain, and others with whom he came in contact.

Every great battle takes on new perspectives and meaning when viewed from the prone position of the private soldier, as opposed to the broad sweep of after-battle reports. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spottslyvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg...Theodore Gerrish was at them all with Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine Regiment. His vivid, compassionate, and often humorous telling is from the spot on the field where the minie-balls are thickest and the cannonading is deafening. This is one of the best private-soldier memoirs of the American Civil War in its scope and its minute details. The views Gerrish provides at the end of famous officers as seen from the private soldier's point of view include Grant, Meade, Hooker, Josuah Lawrence Chamberlain, and others with whom he came in contact. Some of the humor: “Chaplain, will you be kind enough to tell me what the two capital letters, B.C., stand for, when they are printed together upon anything?” “O, yes. It means before the birth of our Saviour, previous to the beginning of the Christian era.” He proceeded to give quite a profound theological exposition of the matter, and then inquired, “Why did you ask so unusual a question?” “O, nothin’,” answered the innocent Dick, “only we have seen it stamped on these sheets of hard-tack, and were curious to know why it was there.” Of the African-Americans who fought, Gerrish says: "As these two races march beside each other in the struggle of life, we only ask and demand that those who, in their poverty, did all they could to save the nation and assist its defenders, shall not be deprived of their sacred rights." Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Every great battle takes on new perspectives and meaning when viewed from the prone position of the private soldier, as opposed to the broad sweep of after-battle reports.Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spottslyvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg...Theodore Gerrish was at them all with Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine Regiment. His vivid, compassionate, and often humorous telling is from the spot on the field where the minie-balls are thickest and the cannonading is deafening.This is one of the best private-soldier memoirs of the American Civil War in its scope and its minute details. The views Gerrish provides at the end of famous officers as seen from the private soldier's point of view include Grant, Meade, Hooker, Josuah Lawrence Chamberlain, and others with whom he came in contact.Some of the humor:"Chaplain, will you be kind enough to tell me what the two capital letters, B.C., stand for, when they are printed together upon anything?" "O, yes. It means before the birth of our Saviour, previous to the beginning of the Christian era." He proceeded to give quite a profound theological exposition of the matter, and then inquired, "Why did you ask so unusual a question?" "O, nothin'," answered the innocent Dick, "only we have seen it stamped on these sheets of hard-tack, and were curious to know why it was there."Of the African-Americans who fought, Gerrish says:"As these two races march beside each other in the struggle of life, we only ask and demand that those who, in their poverty, did all they could to save the nation and assist its defenders, shall not be deprived of their sacred rights."Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it.

The Civil War generation saw its world in ways startlingly different from our own. In these essays, Glenn W. LaFantasie examines the lives and experiences of several key personalities who gained fame during the war and after. The battle of Gettysburg is the thread that ties these Civil War lives together. Gettysburg was a personal turning point, though each person was affected differently. Largely biographical in its approach, the book captures the human drama of the war and shows how this group of individuals—including Abraham Lincoln, James Longstreet, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, William C. Oates, and others—endured or succumbed to the war and, willingly or unwillingly, influenced its outcome. At the same time, it shows how the war shaped the lives of these individuals, putting them through ordeals they never dreamed they would face or survive.

Fought amid rocks and trees, in thick blinding smoke, and under exceedingly stressful conditions, the battle for the southern slope of Little Round Top on July 2, 1863 stands among the most famous and crucial military actions in American history, one of the key engagements that led to the North's victory at Gettysburg. In this powerfully narrated history, Maine historian Tom Desjardin tells the story of the 20th Maine Regiment, the soldiers who fought and won the battle of Little Round Top. This engaging work is the culmination of years of detailed research on the experiences of the soldiers in that regiment, telling the complete story of the unit in the Gettysburg Campaign, from June 21 through July 10, 1863. Desjardin uses more than seventy first-hand accounts to tell the story of this campaign in critical detail. He brings the personal experiences of the soldiers to life, relating the story from both sides and revealing the actions and feelings of the men from Alabama who tried, in vain, to seize Little Round Top. Indeed, ranging from the lowest ranking private to the highest officers, this book explores the terrible experiences of war and their tragic effect. Following the regiment through the campaign enables readers to understand fully the soldiers' feelings towards the enemy, towards citizens of both North and South, and towards the commanders of the two armies. In addition, this book traces the development of the legend of Gettysburg, as veterans of the fight struggle to remember, grasp, and memorialize their part in the largest battle ever fought on the continent. With a new preface and updated maps and illustrations, Stand Firm Ye Boys of Maine offers a compelling account of one of the most crucial small engagements of the Civil War.

Gabor Boritt has invited nine leading authorities to shed new light on the greatest battle in our history, focusing in particular on the unknown, the controversial, and what might have been. What did the battle do to the people of Gettysburg? What is behind the rise of Joshua Chamberlain to the status of the Hero of the Battle? How did the common soldiers influence the battle? Readers are treated to a fresh account of Pickett's Charge from the rarely-described perspective of the Union soldiers, and to careful new analyses of the battlefield actions of General Ewell and General Daniel Sickles. And throughout the volume, there is much vivid writing, such as a stirring account of the moment when General Winfield Scott Hancock ordered the First Minnesota to "take those colors," sending the Minnesotans into a struggle that would cost most of them their lives but would help save the day for the Union. Offering the insights of America's eminent Civil War scholars, The Gettysburg Nobody Knows provides a marvelously informative reconsideration of this epic event.

Joshua Chamberlain's exploits on Little Round Top have gained worldwide fame since the release of the film Gettysburg. Several books on Joshua Chamberlain have appeared in recent years, but most have been either hero-worship or have relied too heavily on his own account of his actions.Edward Longacre has joined the front ranks of American Civil War historians with The Cavalry at Gettysburg, General John Buford, and Custer and his Wolverines. Now he provides the first biography of Joshua Chamberlain that places his Civil War career in the full context of his life before and after the war, explores all aspects of his character, and draws on independent, and occasionally contradictory, eyewitness accounts of his battlefield actions. Previously unknown aspects of Chamberlain's experiences before the war and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Appomattox are presented to a wider audience here for the first time. Edward Longacre's meticulous research suggests that Chamberlain's own accounts of some of his actions can no longer be taken entirely at face value and that his character had a darker side, but the various flaws and failings of Chamberlain the real man as recounted here serve in the end to emphasize rather than diminish the remarkable nature of his accomplishments.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses comes the dramatic and definitive biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the history-altering professor turned Civil War hero. “A vital and vivid portrait of an unlikely military hero who played a key role in the preservation of the Union and therefore in the making of modern America.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of And There Was Light FINALIST FOR THE GILDER LEHRMAN LINCOLN PRIZE AND THE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST BOOK PRIZE FOR HISTORY Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. His colleagues were shocked when he volunteered for the Union army, but he was undeterred and later became known as one of the North’s greatest heroes: On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers. Despite being wounded at Petersburg—and told by two surgeons he would die—Chamberlain survived the war, going on to be elected governor of Maine four times and serve as president of Bowdoin College. How did a stuttering young boy come to be fluent in nine languages and even teach speech and rhetoric? How did a trained minister find his way to the battlefield? Award-winning historian Ronald C. White delves into these contradictions in this cradle-to-grave biography of General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, from his upbringing in rural Maine to his tenacious, empathetic military leadership and his influential postwar public service, exploring a question that still plagues so many veterans: How do you make a civilian life of meaning after having experienced the extreme highs and lows of war? Chamberlain is familiar to millions from Michael Shaara’s now-classic novel of the Civil War, The Killer Angels, and Ken Burns’s timeless miniseries The Civil War, but in this book, White captures the complex and inspiring man behind the hero. Heavily illustrated and featuring nine detailed maps, this gripping, impeccably researched portrait illuminates one of the most admired but least known figures in our nation’s bloodiest conflict.