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Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828. He was the first of four children born to Joshua and Sarah Chamberlain of Brewer, Maine. Starting with his name, Lawrence was forever linked to the military history of the United States.

Named by his father for Captain James Lawrence of the U.S.S. USS Chesapeake, who during the War of 1812 was mortally wounded and before being carried below ordered his men to "Fight her 'til she sinks and don't give up the ship." Shortly afterwards, the crew of the Chesapeake were over run by a British boarding party and surrender the ship.

Later in the war, with his flag ship the Lawrence badly damaged and sinking, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry rowed in a small boat over a half a mile under enemy fire proudly displaying a flag with the words "Don't give up the ship." After transferring his flag to the Niagara, Perry's fleet defeated the British clearing the waters of Lake Erie. In his battle report, Perry wrote "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop".

 It would be 35 years before Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, as he now called himself, would make his own mark in history by ordering his Twentieth Maine Infantry to charge down the bloody slopes of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

Like millions of others, I discovered the college professor from Maine through the first paper back edition of Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels. Thirteen years later, I married Brenda Clark, who was born in the small town of Garland, Maine about thirty miles from Brewer. Over half of the 20th Maine's Company D came from Garland.

In 1986, on a trip back from Maine, I stopped at Gettysburg for the first time.  I still remember walking down the narrow path to the Twentieth Maine monument.  It was on that misty October day that I came up with the idea for a book about Chamberlain and the officer he captured during the famous charge. Nineteen years later, that idea became a reality when Skyward published Courage on Little Round Top.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will take some time and review my novel and additional websites.

Tom Eishen

 

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.net