From Appomattox
© 2000 ProofmarkPreface
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain entered the Civil War as an obscure professor from an equally-obscure college, Bowdoin, in Brunswick, Maine. He left it a hero best known for his valiant action on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, a battle oft retold in books, articles, and a recent film on PBS. He alludes to the outcome of that bitter fight in this work, insisting that the valor of his unit, the Twentieth Maine, "changed Lee's whole plan of battle, and perhaps the story of Gettysburg." While some historians, professional as well as amateur, have portrayed the fight on Round Top as less pivotal to the outcome of the three days' battle at Gettysburg than Chamberlain and his biographers would have us believe, we cannot deny his courage and daring. His peers certainly thought so&emdash; in 1893, the Congress of the United States awarded him the Medal of Honor.
Less well known is his role in the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of General Robert E. Lee, at Appomattox Courthouse on April 12th, 1865. While his actions there were seemingly professional and mundane, his gallantry and magnanimity would be long remembered by the opposing troops; words of his regarding the surrender are still emblazoned on the walls of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
This speech, given in New York in October of 1903, is a window onto one of the most momentous events of the Civil War. Chamberlain not only magnificently describes the final scenes of the battle, but records his deepest impressions as the vanquished Army of Northern Virginia lays down its arms and flags for the last time at the feet of the victorious Army of the Potomac.
Mark Wilson Seymour, editor
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