Catchup post - Memorial Day

Yesterday I saw the following video on cnn.com and was touched by focus and respect this honor guard displays even when you know everyone else attending the ceremony was scrambling for cover.

Watching this video reminded me that on Memorial Day I had good intentions of writing a special blog post for Memorial Day. For Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me the book, In the Hands of Providence about a civil war soldier from Maine named Joshua L. Chamberlain. He was wounded four times, had about 6 horses shot out under him, and returned to Maine and served as President of Bowdoin College for over a decade and 4 term governor.

He took a leave of absence from his professorship at Bowdoin College to recruit and lead the 20th Maine infantry division, arriving in Washington DC just after the second Battle of Bull Run/Manassas (depending on whether you were born north/south of Mason-Dixon line). While he participated in the Battle of Antietam as well as a few others, he distinguished himself on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg by "refusing the line" and gallantly leading a bayonet charge when his men ran out of ammunition that effectively ended the Battle of Little Round Top and tipped the balance of the battle of Gettysburg in favor of the Union. This particular engagement was dramatized in the movie, Gettysburg.

However, what is not portrayed in the movie was that after that exhausting battle, the Union leadership recognized after dark that Big Round Top needed to be carried or their hard fought victory would be for nothing. While other commanders were turning down the request to advance on Big Round Top, Chamberlain asked for volunteers from the 20th and every man volunteered and they took it without firing a shot.

He went on to prove himself time and time again in numerous other battles, and was promoted, right up to the campaign that led to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. His men were marching 30+ miles a day and fighting for over a week. However, his men led the infantry advance on Appomatox that led initially to the truce and surrender of General Lee. Recognizing his role, General Grant appointed him to oversee the surrender of the Confederate infantry, which he did with such respect for them that he was almost a celebrity in the south.

While the book meanders at times, and by no stretch of the imagination was intended to be a comprehensive narrative of the civil war, it does provide interesting insights into the makings of one of the true heroes of that conflict, as well as how that played out in the 50 years after the war. It was an easy and entertaining read, so I'd recommend it. It helped me reflect on the sacrafices and risks many men and women have taken to preserve our country.