Joshua Chamberlain

R.E. Lee, General." End quote.

On April twelfth, eighteen sixty-five, the Army of Northern Virginia stacked its arms and surrendered its battle flags in a solemn ceremony of mutual military respect presided over by Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Robert E. Lee did not attend the ceremony.

Accompanied by a handful of staff officers, he rode slowly eastward across the devastated fields of Virginia, crossing the pontoon bridges over the James River into the ruined, blackened city of Richmond.

Joshua Chamberlain, a distinguished veteran of the American Civil War, stood apart from his peers in many ways.

He received a Medal of Honor for his heroic leadership on Little Round Top at Gettysburg.

He fought in 24 engagements with the famous 20th Maine, including the notable battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, did you know that was a place? And Cold Harbor.

Throughout his entire life, he remained an advocate for his beloved Maine, helping attract investors and immigrants to bolster the state's economy.

But another notable moment of his life occurred at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, where General Grant accepted General Lee's surrender to end the US Civil War.

As Chamberlain and the soldiers he had fought so valiantly beside stood and watched their former enemies file past in silent defeat, Joshua Chamberlain, who by the way, started off as a professor of rhetoric, issued a remarkable order.

Watching the men who were once his enemies on the battlefield make their last march together, Chamberlain commanded the soldiers in his force to salute their defeated foes who were once their mortal enemies.

The salute began with his unit and slowly spread down the whole Union line as together the victors honored the valor and courage of their enemies, who many times were their brothers.

So, so let me ask you this, 'cause I'm trying to make sense of the different cultures.

Um, to your point, the South loses the Civil War, but because a lot of the Southerners are not a lot of the average soldiers, and if you guys watch the Gettysburg movie, you'll notice a scene in which, um, uh, Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine is speaking to a few captured Confederate soldiers, and he asks him, the, Lawrence Chamberlain, a, a Union guy, asks one of the Southerners, I think from Alabama, you know, "Why are you fighting this?" And he goes, "I'm fighting for my rights." And they're not fighting for slavery.

In, in his eyes, they have a right to not be, you know, intruded upon by the North, right? They don't want a federal invasion, and he, I think he even might say in the movie, like, "I don't care about the slaves either way.

Like, free 'em, don't free 'em."

The Union left at Little Round Top became the key.

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine were ordered to hold at all costs.

Low on ammunition, they launched a desperate bayonet charge down the slope, surprising the attackers and saving the Union flank.

On the right, at Culp's Hill, soldiers grappled through thick woods and rocky ground, musket flashes lighting the night.

But the real meat of the fighting takes place on the extreme left side of Meade's army.

The commanding officer for this Union force is a colonel named Joshua Chamberlain.

He's a schoolteacher from Maine.

He is in charge of the 20th Maine volunteers, and he's dispatched about 4:00 PM on July 2nd to occupy that extreme left side of Meade's line.

But they, in this sort of moment, they have turned this battle into a place of weakness, this little extreme left, from a place of weakness to a place of strength.

They're reinforced by the 5th Pennsylvania and the 12th Pennsylvania, and then the next day at noon, they're relieved by the 1st Brigade.

Joshua Chamberlain earns himself the Medal of Honor with this action here.

It is one of those all-time Americana moments.

And I'd much rather have Brazil's soccer team than ours based off the last World Cup.

I'm wearing my Joshua Chamberlain shirt today.

Nice.

Very good.

Character.

Two of the most esteemed figures in the history of the state of Maine, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, He was a professor from Bowdoin College, wounded in the Civil War where you didn't have much chance surviving one wound seven times.

Breveted, which means an honorary promotion to the rank of Brigadier General.

He was personally chosen by Grant to accept the Confederate surrender.

This is a big story around her, and she had to answer this question.

Sent $150,000 to pro-Collins Super PAC in 2019.

Two months later, he told executives that Collins would deliver $32 million in Navy contracts.

We're not just talking about someone that has the inability to communicate who sounds like the female version of R.K. Jr., We're talking about a woman who is just as corrupt as everybody, who has stolen women's rights to their own reproductive organs, who voted against the Big Beautiful Bill because she knew the Big Beautiful Bill had enough votes.