February 23, 2014

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Professor, Soldier, Christian Man of Honor

By Alan Roebuck
One hundred years ago tomorrow, a great and noble American passed into eternity.  On February 24, 1914, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Union Army officer, Bowdoin College professor, governor of Maine, and Christian gentleman, died at the age of eighty-five at his home in Portland, Maine of a battle wound incurred almost fifty years before.  It is fitting that we honor him, an illustrious ancestor of ours, and draw from his life inspiration and courage to face the battles of our day. (The author is indebted to Alice Rain Trulock's excellent Chamberlain biography In the Hands of Providence: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the American Civil War, from which all of the Chamberlain quotes are taken.) He was born Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain on September 8, 1828, on a farm near Brewer, Maine, eldest of the five children of Joshua and Sarah Chamberlain and the son and grandson of soldiers.  Growing up on a farm, Chamberlain learned to work hard and overcome...(Read Full Article)