joshua_lawrence_chamberlain

JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN
September 8, 1828 - February 24, 1914


"We could not look into those brave, bronze faces, and those battered flags we had met on so many fields where glorious manhood lent a glory to the earth that bore it, and think of personal hate and mean revenge. Whoever had misled these men, we had not. We had led them back, home." Joshua L. Chamberlain		On April 1, 1865 at the Battle of Five Forks, Chamberlain and his men received a significant victory; capturing more than one thousand Rebels, including nineteen officers and five battle flags. The next day they advanced on the South Side Railroad and pushed the Rebel cavalry back, capturing the train and many Confederate prisoners. On April 9, 1865, General Lee, whose Army of Northern Virginia was now severely weakened, called a truce to end the four years of fighting. It would be Chamberlain who was selected to receive the formal surrender of General Robert E. Lee's veteran troops and the colors of Lee's Army on April 12, 1865, and Joshua was deeply touched to have been selected for this honor. Upon accepting their surrender, in a gesture of friendship, ordered his men in salute as the shattered Confederate army passed by. Confederate General John B. Gordon, amazed to be so honorably treated, prompted him and his men to graciously return the salute to Chamberlain.