Chamberlain Reconsidered

Hero, scholar, governor, legend—Joshua Chamberlain’s legacy is as contested as the battles he fought.

“In great deeds something abides,” said Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at the dedication of the 20th Maine’s monument at Gettysburg more than twenty-five years after the battle. He meant the solemn honor and quiet reverence that linger on battlefields long after the guns fall silent, but he knew better than most that controversy also abides: in remarks earlier that same day, Chamberlain disputed the location of the regiment’s monument and disagreed with various accounts of its actions on Little Round Top.

This engaging new book describes the war over Chamberlain that has smoldered for more than a century and a half and colored—and often clouded—how we understand one of the most famous soldiers of the Civil War, from that famous hill at Gettysburg to the battle of Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox, from Chamberlain’s own writings to countless books by historians and biographers, from novels and films to bobbleheads and beers. Author Diane Monroe Smith is a veteran of the battles over Chamberlain, and her book is part history, part deep dive into the controversies and debates that are as much a part of Chamberlain’s legacy as his deeds on the battlefield.