Joshua Chamberlain by Edward G. Longacre

There are, however, two competing views on the location of the June 18 attack that nearly killed him.

When Grant heard of the colonel’s grievous wound, he promoted Chamberlain to Brigadier General on June 20. Chamberlain frequently referred to the fort when describing the June 18, 1864, attack, but it did not exist at that time. They saw me standing there like a statue leaning on my sword, but did not dream that I had received a mortal wound….” Union Troops pose inside Fort Sedgwick, or “Fort Hell,” after the Siege of Petersburg ended. I knew that if they saw their leader fall it would discourage them, so with rigid features I held myself up although helpless in all other ways. “I thrust the point of my sword into the ground and balanced myself over the hilt and held myself in that position until the men of the first line had passed in charge. “I was standing so firmly on the ground at the time that I did not fall at first,” Chamberlain recalled. Chamberlain grabbed the banner and, as he urged his men forward, a Minié ball slammed into his pelvis. Chamberlain was already famous in the Army of the Potomac for his Little Round Top heroics at Gettysburg the previous July, and when he returned to active duty in April 1864 after an extended illness, he was given command of the Keystone State regiments.Īs the brigade struggled ahead, its standard-bearer went down with a wound. Gouverneur Warren’s 5th Corps, was a brigade of Pennsylvania regiments under Colonel Joshua Chamberlain-the 121st, 142nd, 143rd, 149th, 150th, and 187th. Joining the June 18 attacks, on the far left of the Union lines in Brig. The Second Battle of Petersburg, which had opened on June 15, would end in Northern defeat and the beginning of a protracted siege that would last for months. Rank after rank of blue troops faltered under withering gunfire. Grant had about 67,000 men at his disposal to 20,000 for the Rebels, but confusion, miscommunication, and the Confederates’ adept juggling of reinforcements doomed the Union onslaughts. Lee could fully reinforce the thinly held Confederate trenches. Grant had ordered another series of assaults against the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Va., hoping to capture the city before General Robert E. Jwas not a good day for the Army of the Potomac. The Union colonel’s own clouded hindsight has led to confusion about his 1864 heroics.

Joshua Chamberlain by Edward G. Longacre