                 GENERAL AND BROTHER JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN
        
                           By Charles W. Plummer


    "Colonel Chamberlain, your
    gallantry was magnificent, and your
    coolness and skill saved us."

                                  Colonel James Rice
                                  (commanding 3rd Brigade, 1st
                                  Division, Fifth Corps) re Little
                                  Round Top, Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.


    "Colonel J. L. Chamberlain was
    wounded . . . gallantly leading his brigade
    . . . .  I promoted him on the spot."
                                  
                                  U. S. Grant, speaking of
                                  Chamberlain at Rives' Salient,
                                  Petersburg, June 18, 1864.


    "General, you have the soul of the
    lion and the heart of the woman."

                                  General Horatio G. Sikel to
                                  Chamberlain at the Quaker Road,
                                  Virginia, March 29, 1865.


    "The pageant has passed.  The day
    is over.  But we linger, loath to think we
    shall see them no more together - these
    men, these horses, these colors afield."
                                  
                                  Joshua L. Chamberlain speaking
                                  of the last Grand Review of the
                                  Army of the Potomac held in
                                  Washington on May 23, 1865.


    "I say this is a good age, and we
    need not quarrel with it.  We must
    understand it if we can.  At least we must
    do our work in it.  We must have the
    spirit of reverence and faith, we must 
    balance the mind and heart with God's
    higher revelation, but we must also take
    hold of this which we call science, and
    which makes knowledge power."

                                  Chamberlain, in his inaugural
                                  address as President of Bowdoin
                                  College, July, 1872.


    "You understand what you want,
    do you?  I am here to preserve the peace
    and honor of this State, until the rightful
    government is seated (and) it is for me to
    see that the laws of this State are put into
    effect, without fraud, without force, but
    with calm thought and sincere purpose. 
    I am here for that, and I shall do it.  If
    anybody wants to kill me for it, here I
    am."

                                   Chamberlain to the mob
                                   threatening to kill him at Augusta
                                   during the crisis of January, 1880.


    ". . . true greatness is not in nor of
    the single self; it is of that larger
    personality, that shared and sharing life
    with others, in which, each giving of his
    best for their betterment, we are greater
    than ourselves; and self-surrender for the
    sake of that great belonging, is the true
    nobility."

                                   Chamberlain, speaking of
                                   Abraham Lincoln at Philadelphia,
                                   February 12, 1909.



    First and foremost, Joshua L. Chamberlain was a State of Maine man 
    through and through.  He was Maine educated, he served with Maine 
    regiments during the Civil War, he was elected governor four times, 
    and he served as president of Bowdoin College. 


    He was also one of the most remarkable soldiers in American 
    history. He was wounded six times, cited for bravery in action four 
    times, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at the 
    Battle of Gettysburg, promoted to Brigadier General by order of 
    Ulysses Grant for heroism at Petersburg, Breveted Major General for 
    heroism at Five Forks, chosen by Grant to have the honor of 
    receiving the southern surrender at Appomattox, and given first 
    place in the final Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac in 
    Washington on May 23, 1865. 


    Last, and certainly not least, he was a Master Mason whose life was 
    guided by a firm belief in the tenets of Freemasonry: brotherly 
    love, relief and truth. 


    Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine on September 
    8, 1828.  His father, also named Joshua, was a farmer and one of 
    the area's leading citizens in civil and military affairs.  He was 
    a hard-working man whose quiet demeanor and stern appearance were 
    rather misleading for, by nature, he was a very kind man.  He was 
    determined that his son would have a career in the military. 


    His mother, Sarah Dupee Barstow Chamberlain, was a woman who 
    outwardly was in sharp contrast to that of her husband.  She was 
    vibrant and full of laughter, yet firm when she needed to be. 
    Overflowing with energy, she led a very active life.  She had 
    resolved early in her son's life that he would devote himself to 
    carrying out the work of the Lord, and was not in the least 
    disturbed by her Thusband's insistence that their son would one day 
    enter upon a career in the military. 


    Lawrence, the name his parents were to call him by throughout their 
    lifetime, led a busy and active life as a boy.  There was always 
    plenty of work to be done on the family farm, including the usual 
    chores around the barn, the cutting of wood, the clearing and 
    plowing of fields, and the planting of seeds in the spring and the 
    harvesting of crops in the fall.  From all of this, he learned one 
    of life's important lessons that was to stand him in good stead 
    during the trying years of the Civil War, and that was that few 
    things are so difficult that they cannot be mastered. 


    It should be pointed out, however, that life for him did not center 
    entirely around work.  He learned to sail the family sloop, became 
    a powerful swimmer, and a skillful player of the old game of "round 
    ball."  He enjoyed music and was an accomplished singer and choral 
    director, as well as an adept player of the bass viola. 


    The importance of educational studies and career planning were not 
    overlooked.  His father sent him to Major Whiting's military 
    academy in Ellsworth, where he learned military drill and became 
    very proficient in Latin and French.  Family financial 
    difficulties, however, necessitated his seeking paid employment, 
    and he took a job as a schoolteacher.  He developed a lasting love 
    for this profession, as well as a high opinion of the value of 
    education.  He soon discovered, however, that teaching was not to 
    be an unmixed joy, for he had to thrash the usual school bully, a 
    lad as big as he was, before he could establish control of the 
    classroom and credibility with his students. 


    With the realization that his teenage years were rapidly drawing to 
    a close, he finally made the decision to become a minister, a 
    missionary type, which would make it possible for him to continue 
    to teach school, at the same time spreading the spiritual message 
    of Christianity.  Recognizing that to achieve his goal he must 
    acquire a college education, he entered Bowdoin College in 1848.  
    His record there was one of academic excellence, and he was elected 
    Phi Beta Kappa. 


    As his senior year approached, he reached decisions on two specific 
    matters relating to his personal life and future. The first was to 
    enter Bangor Theological Seminary following his graduation from 
    Bowdoin to train for the ministry.  The second was to marry the 
    girl who had captured his heart, a Miss Fanny Adams. He entered 
    Bangor Theological Seminary in the fall of 1852, but set aside his 
    plans for marriage until he had completed his ministerial training. 


    While attending the Seminary, he made an oral presentation at 
    Bowdoin entitled "Law and Liberty."  The Bowdoin faculty and 
    administration were so impressed with his presentation that they 
    invited him to become an instructor in logic and natural theology 
    during the 1855-56 academic year.  He enthusiastically accepted the 
    invitation and celebrated by marrying his beloved Fanny Adams on 
    December 7, 1855.  He was to remain at Bowdoin from the fall of 
    1855 to mid-summer of 1862. 


    During his tenure as a member of the faculty at Bowdoin, he was 
    considered something of a radical, as he strongly believed that 
    students should be treated as adults and not young boys.  He 
    believed they should be freed from the strait-jacket regulations 
    governing their intellectual and social lives.  This was in sharp 
    contrast to the thinking of a number of other professors on the 
    faculty who treated their students in a stern and parental manner.  
    In 1859, he made the following statement; "My idea of a college 
    course is that it should afford a liberal education, not a special 
    or professional one, not in any way one-sided.  It cannot be a 
    finished education, but should be, I think, a general outline of a 
    symmetrical development, involving such acquaintance with all the 
    departments of knowledge and culture, proportionate to their 
    several values as shall give some insight into the principles and 
    powers by which thought passes into life, together with such 
    practice and exercise in each of the great fields of study that the 
    student may experience himself a little in all." 


    A review of Bowdoin College historical records reveals that 
    following the bombardment at Fort Sumter, a number of seniors went 
    rushing off to the war.  The real impact, however, was to be felt 
    in 1862.  With the deepening of the national crisis during that 
    year, Chamberlain grew more and more uneasy. He strongly 
    disapproved of slavery on moral and religious grounds, but was even 
    more adamant about secession.  He was critical of secession as the 
    abrogation of a government of laws which the Southern states had 
    originally pledged themselves to support.  For as long as he lived, 
    he was to denounce the withdrawal of the South from the Union of 
    the States.  There were colleagues on the faculty, however, who did 
    not share his views and did not feel as strongly about the conflict 
    as he did.  The more he debated the issues with them, the more the 
    logic of his thinking guided him towards a personal participation 
    in the war. 


    When it became apparent among the college trustees and faculty 
    members that he harbored serious thoughts about leaving his 
    position and joining the Union Army, attempts were made to persuade 
    him to remain.  The college, expressing concerns about his personal 
    welfare and his future should he become seriously disabled from 
    combat wounds, granted him a two-year leave of absence to travel 
    and study in Europe, hoping this would gradually eliminate any 
    thoughts he had about going off to war.  Perhaps it would not be 
    unreasonable to speculate that another reason the college did not 
    want him to leave was because it did not want to lose the services 
    of one of its most able and popular professors. 


    Chamberlain tentatively accepted the leave of absence, but his 
    conscience got the better of him.  He felt that he had to commit 
    himself wholeheartedly to the struggle in which "I saw the very 
    citadel of civilization threatened, a respect for the laws of man 
    and the laws of God." He traveled to Augusta to see Governor Israel 
    Washburn and, as a result of his discussions, accepted appointment 
    as a lieutenant colonel and command of a Maine regiment.  When word 
    of this got back to the college, he was severely criticized by the 
    members of the faculty for his actions.  They even went so far as 
    to protest his lack of qualifications to Governor Washburn in the 
    hope that the appointment would be withdrawn.  The urgent need for 
    troops, however, far exceeded those of Bowdoin College and he 
    quickly dismissed the protest.  On August 8, 1862, he wrote to 
    Chamberlain commissioning him a Lieutenant Colonel of the new 20th 
    Regiment Infantry, Maine Volunteers, a regiment whose service 
    record was to become one of the most distinguished on the annals of 
    the Civil War. 


    During the Civil War years, many Maine men who found themselves on 
    the verge of entering military service were applying in haste for 
    the degrees of Masonry.  It is quite probable that they felt it 
    would be helpful to be members of this great Order during their 
    participation in the conflict.  The historical records of United 
    Lodge No. 8 in Brunswick reveal that Chamberlain was numbered among 
    this group.  We do not know for certain what his primary motivation 
    was to join this great fraternity, but it would seem likely that he 
    had received favorable reports about this ancient institution from 
    colleagues on the Bowdoin faculty who were Masons.  The principles 
    of Freemasonry were certainly consistent with the moral principles 
    that guided his life. 


    Because of the pressure being placed on lodges to waive the usual 
    waiting period of a month, and the Grand Lodge of Maine's concern 
    that hurry-up work might result in a weakening of the Order at its 
    foundation level, it was decreed that dispensations must be secured 
    and a fee of five dollars charged for a waiver.  At a special 
    communication of United Lodge No. 8, held on the evening of August 
    27, 1862, the secretary presented a dispensation from Grand Master 
    Josiah H. Drumond, to allow Chamberlain to take his Masonic degrees 
    in less than the prescribed time.  This, in itself, was somewhat 
    unusual, for dispensations were usually handled by the District 
    Deputy Grand Master.  A ballot was taken and Chamberlain was 
    accepted for the Entered Apprentice Degree. While he was being 
    notified of his acceptance and in the process of being brought to 
    the lodge to take the degree, another ballot was taken and it was 
    voted to confer upon him the Fellowcraft Degree.  Thus, on that 
    very same night, he was initiated as an Entered Apprentice and 
    passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. At 8:00 a.m. the very next 
    morning, the lodge reconvened and he was raised to the sublime 
    degree of Master Mason.  On September 12, 1862, he was proposed as 
    a member, and on October 7, 1862, a ballot was taken and he was 
    officially elected a member of United Lodge. 


    Within a matter of days, he and the 20th Maine Regiment were off to 
    Washington, arriving there on Sunday, September 7, 1862.  On 
    September 12, the regiment started on a forced march that was 
    eventually to lead them to Antietam and a memorable place in 
    history.  By war's end, the name of Chamberlain and the 20th Maine 
    were famous and battle honors were earned at Antietam, 
    Shepherdstown Ford, Fredericksburg, Middleburg, Gettysburg, 
    Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, The Wilderness, Laurel Hill, North 
    Anna, Bethesda Church, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Peebles' Farm, 
    Hatcher's Run, Quaker Road, White Oak Road, Five Forks and 
    Appomattox.  Chamberlain's courage and leadership were ever 
    present, but of all the battles in which he participated, he is 
    best remembered for the courage displayed at Little Round Top 
    during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.  His gallant 
    actions there won him the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Colonel 
    John Oates of the 15th Alabama, Army of the Confederacy, a man who 
    clearly saw the South's lost opportunity at Little Round Top, best 
    described the action of Chamberlain and his men when he said, 
    "There never were harder fighters than the Twentieth Maine men and 
    their gallant Colonel (Chamberlain).  Their skill and persistency 
    and great bravery saved Little Round Top and the Army of the 
    Potomac from defeat.  Great events sometimes turn on comparatively 
    small affairs." 


    Further honors were to come to Chamberlain.  On Palm Sunday night, 
    April 9, 1865, General Griffin summoned him to his headquarters and 
    informed him that he was to have the honor of receiving the 
    surrender of the Southern infantry on April 12.  The morning of 
    April 12 dawned chill and grey.  It was the fourth anniversary of 
    that day when a Confederate shell burst over Fort Sumter in 
    Charleston Harbor, ushering in the Civil War.  At 9:00, the 
    Confederates began falling in for the final surrender and, as 
    Chamberlain watched the remnant of General Lee's once-great army, 
    one some historians have described as the most effective fighting 
    machine of its size ever created by the American people, the 
    significance of the occasion made a deep impression upon his mind.  
    He had resolved earlier to recognize the moment by saluting the 
    Southern troops.  He was well-aware of the responsibility he was 
    taking upon himself with this decision and the criticism that was 
    sure to follow as it indeed did.  But he was to defend his actions 
    by saying, "My chief reason was one for which I sought no authority 
    or asked forgiveness.  Before us in proud humiliation stood the 
    embodiment of mankind; men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor 
    the face of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from 
    their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn and famished, but 
    erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that 
    bound us together as no other bond; was not such manhood to be 
    welcomed back into a union so tested and assured?"  This act of 
    brotherly love literally astounded the world, and years later the 
    people of the South still refer to him as a great general. 


    In addition to being accorded the honor of receiving the Southern 
    surrender, he was numbered among the select few who were to lead 
    the troops of the Army of the Potomac as they passed in review 
    during the Grand Review held in Washington on May 23, 1865.  This 
    turned out to be a great emotional experience for him and he 
    described it in the following words, "The pageant has passed.  The 
    day is over.  But we linger, loath to think we shall see them no 
    more together - these men, these horses, these colors afield." 


    In the roll call of valor, his name certainly stands out.  He had 
    participated in twenty four battles, capturing 2,700 prisoners and 
    eight battle flags.  He was awarded the Congressional Medal of 
    Honor for his gallantry at Gettysburg, was promoted to Brigadier 
    General for his efforts at Rives' Salient, and was promoted to 
    Major General for his courage at the Quaker Road.  There were at 
    least five horses shot from under him and six times he was 
    seriously or slightly wounded.  A miniball at Rives' Salient nearly 
    killed him and caused him untold agony until the day he died. 


    Reflecting on his Civil War experiences years later, Chamberlain 
    did not perceive war as something dreadful and defined it in solid 
    human values.  He was to say, "We cannot accept General Sherman's 
    synonym as a complete connotation or definition of war.  Fighting 
    and destruction are terrible, but are sometimes agencies of 
    heavenly, rather than hellish, powers.  In the privations and 
    sufferings endured, as well as in the strenuous action of battle, 
    some of the highest qualities of manhood are called forth - 
    courage, self-command, sacrifice of self for the sake of something 
    held higher - wherein we take it chivalry finds its value, and on 
    another side fortitude, patience, warmth of comradeship and, in the 
    darkest hours, tenderness of caring for the wounded and stricken, 
    exhausting and unceasing as that of gentlest womanhood which allies 
    us to the highest personality." 


    On January 16, 1866, he was released from military service and 
    returned to Bowdoin College.  As spring approached, leaders of the 
    Republican Party discussed with him the possibility of his becoming 
    the party's candidate for governor during the next election.  
    Giving this some thought, he finally allowed his name to be entered 
    as a candidate in the Republican convention to be held in June and 
    he was elected as the party candidate.  During this election for 
    governor, he won out over his Democratic opponent, Eben F. 
    Pillsbury, an Augusta newspaperman.  He was reelected to that 
    office three more times before his gubernatorial career was to come 
    to an end.  Years later, President William DeWitt Hyde of Bowdoin 
    College said of him, "As a statesman, he was in advance of his 
    time.  Called to solve the problems entailed by the Civil War, his 
    administration as Governor was marked by patience and fairness.  He 
    refused to use the power that people gave him for ends other than 
    the people's good, and when the leaders of his party advocated the 
    impeachment of the President (Johnson), the protracted agitation of 
    sectional differences, and immediate suffrage for the emancipated 
    Negroes, he stood firmly, sagaciously and self-sacrificing for more 
    moderate and pacific measures - measures which subsequent history 
    has shown to be far more beneficial than those which, in the flush 
    of military victory, the heat of party strife, and the fire of 
    personal ambition, unfortunately prevailed." 


    In 1871, with the impending departure of Bowdoin's president Samuel 
    Harris, he was offered the presidency of his alma mater, which he 
    accepted with enthusiasm.  He was to remain in that position until 
    1883 when failing health persuaded him to resign the office. 


    As the year 1913 was drawing to a close, his old battle wound again 
    became inflamed and, by January of 1914, he was completely 
    prostrated at his home in Brunswick.  Shortly after half-past nine 
    on the morning of February 24, 1914, he passed into quiet death. 


    Following a volley of rifles in a final salute, and the haunting 
    notes of Dan Butterfield's "Taps," he was laid to rest in Pinegrove 
    Cemetery next to Bowdoin College.  Using those beautiful words 
    written by John Bunyan long ago, one might say of him, "So he 
    passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other 
    side."  A simple stone marks his resting place, on which is 
    engraved simply his name and the date of birth and the date of 
    death. 


    It would be very difficult to find words to describe the life of 
    this remarkable man and Freemason, and perhaps we would do well to 
    borrow those spoken by General Horatio Sickel at the Quaker Road, 
    Virginia, on March 29, 1865, when he described him as a man who had 
    "the soul of the lion and the heart of the woman." 



                                BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Davis, Burke, "To Appomattox", Rinehard and Company, Inc., (New 
        York), 1959. 

    Norton, Oliver W., "The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top, 
        Gettysburg, July 2, 1863", The Neale Publishing Company, (New 
        York), 1913.

    Pullen, John J., "The Twentieth Maine", J. B. Lippincott Company, 
        (Philadelphia), 1957.

    Shaara, Michael, "The Killer Angels", Ballantine Books, (New York), 
        1974. 

    Wallace, Willard M., "Soul of the Lion", Thomas Nelson and Sons, 
        (New York), 1960.

    "Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine for 
        the Year 1863", Stevens and Sayward Printers, (Augusta), 1855.

    "Chamberlain Collection", Maine Historical Society, Portland, 
        Maine. 

    "History of United Lodge No. 8", Brunswick, Maine. 

    "In Memoriam: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Late Major-General", 
        U.S.V. Circular No. 5, Series of 1914, Whole Number 328, 
        Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 
        Commandery of the State of Maine, Portland, 1914. 

    "Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, A Sketch", Prepared for the Report of 
        the Chamberlain Association of America, No. Author, Place or 
        Date, Auburn Public Library, Auburn, Maine.


