Chamberlain managed to survive infection after infection as well as chronic pain, limited mobility, and mental anguish without the benefit of antibiotics or proper, accurate diagnoses. He fought at Five Forks, then the pursuit to Appomattox. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Civil War Colonel 20th Maine Division Gettysburg Part 1. Harrison. BECOME A MEMBER TODAY In a trembling hand, Brigadier General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain wrote the words he thought would be his last to his wife, Fanny, after midnight on June 19, 1864. He resumed command in May 1864, in time for Cold Harbor, which he survived unscathed. I walked down through the ranks of my silent or sleeping men, drawing a blanket more closely over one … Having passed all through the deep spreading ranks, and went to my quarters and dropped into an unaccustomed mood. According to Grant: … In early 1862, Chamberlain expressed his de… After leaving political office, he returned to Bowdoin College. Jessica Jewett is an author and portrait artist living in Atlanta. [ii] Smith, Diane Monroe. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed ), memorial page for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (8 Sep 1828–24 Feb 1914), Find a Grave Memorial no. Returning to the Army of the Potomac in April 1864, Chamberlain was promoted to back brigade command in June after the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. If a secondary infection arises, simply feeding antibiotics into an IV will kill it. By autumn 1862, Chamberlain was appointed lieutenant colonel of the … “My darling wife I am lying mortally wounded the doctors think, but my mind & heart are at peace Jesus Christ is my all-sufficient savior. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was hardly the type of person one would have picked to become a war hero. Chamberlain had been a professor at Bowdoin College when he volunteered for the Union Army. This time it wasn't serious, and he led his men in the final stages of the war. © 2021 The National Museum of Civil War Medicine - CivilWarMed.org. We owe the safety and quick healing properties of modern catheters to the trial and error experimentation of Civil War surgeons like Dr. Bernard Vanderkeift. A religious young man, Chamberlain encountered some “frightening” new experiences at Bowdoin, from drinking alcohol to skipping classes. Taken by the steamer Connecticut to the Naval Academy hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, he would go on to spend decades beating back death’s door. Vulcanized rubber catheters were designed in the 1850s yet not often chosen over silver because they tended to disintegrate at body temperature and left behind debris. He was in command on Little Round Top when Longstreet's attack was close to breaking the Union right. The Little Round Top Feud Between Joshua Chamberlain and Ellis Spear. He did not let this stop him. “Joshua Chamberlain, you are the extreme left edge of this line of 80,000 men that runs from you all the way into that town over there called Gettysburg.” Well, they spent the entire morning laying up a rock wall. It was a busy nine months: he fought at Antietam, Shepherdstown Ford, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Sedated by morphine and chloroform, he nevertheless remained conscious, even instructing surgeons to carry on when they could no longer stomach the torture inflicted on him.[iii]. T he 20th Maine’s epic stand and bayonet charge at Little Round Top on July 2, 1863, secured that regiment’s place in military history. John Buford. Shaw (20th Maine) and Townsend (44th New York). What part of General Lee causes him pain? There he fell, bleeding and certain of his approaching death. From Joshua L. Chamberlain to “My Dear Pastor,” Bowdoin College, May 5, 1848. College administrators didn't want to allow him to leave his studies, so he asked for and was granted a leave of absence to study abroad. The surgeon reported to Dr. John H. Brinton that Chamberlain’s catheter had become encrusted after only five days. Become a museum member and support our educational programs and research like this. Another infection set in, as did a fistula (a hole) at the base of his penis slightly anterior to the scrotum. Special Collections Room, Hawthorne-Longellow Library, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME. After the war he was a bit late in returning from his year of leave to Bowdoin, but they forgave him and he was eventually president of the college, and even Governor of Maine. Soldiers like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain endured unspeakable pain and sickness because, unfortunately, medical progress meant learning from materials, bacteria, and anatomy they didn’t understand. Lee had surrendered on April […] [v] A brief history of urinary catheters. Instead, he immediately volunteered his services and secured a position as Lieutenant Colonel of 2… Upward and diagonal, the bullet shattered sections of his pelvis and ripped apart muscle, vessels, and passed through his bladder before coming to rest just below the skin on his left hip. To know & love you makes life & death beautiful.” [i]. Few generals have become literary lions to the degree of Professor Chamberlain. He received the Medal of Honor for Little Round Top." BRUNSWICK, Maine Civil War general Joshua Chamberlain's original Congressional Medal of Honor has arrived back in Brunswick. As the brigade struggled ahead, its standard-bearer went down with a wound. [vi] McAllister, C. K.: “Fire, Blood, and the Lion of the Union: Joshua Chamberlain’s Civil War Ailments.” The Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha, 61: pp 40, 1998. She has been a lifelong student of the Civil War, specifically Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and medical topics, since her disability gives her a shared perspective with soldiers of the period. Instead, he joined the Army. What did Joshua Chamberlain do? In Chamberlain’s day, there were no flexible plastics, no sturdy rubbers, and no antibiotics to fight off infections. Almost a decade has passed since he gave us the commanding performance as Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain in the film Gettysburg. During the second day of fighting at Gettysburg, commanders Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and Major Ellis Spear—already good friends from before the war—further forged a seemingly unbreakable bond in … He also cabled Gen. Chamberlain, as commander of the State Militia, to mobilize his troops, and come to Augusta immediately. Orthopedic damage limited his ability to ride horses or walk long distances for years to come, while the fistula caused episodic infections, incontinence, loss of sexual function, and chronic pain. It is not possible to know the exact damage, but modern urologists and orthopedists theorized the bullet tore through the bladder neck. Thomas Chamberlain was involved in most of the other battles in which the 20th Maine fought, most notably the Battle of Gettysburg . Despite a fatal prognosis, Dr. Vanderkieft decided giving Chamberlain a fighting chance meant an experimental procedure. Name three battle sites. Urosepsis set in almost immediately, causing severe chills, high fever, convulsions, delirium, nausea, and vomiting. Want to learn more? His military career began slowly, when in 1862 he took a year's leave from Bowdoin College (where he taught modern languages) for travel in Europe. Fifty years after being shot, in 1914, Chamberlain died of another urosepsis episode, making him one of the last Civil War veterans to die of complications from war wounds. National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD, Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in Washington, DC, Pry House Field Hospital Museum on Antietam National Battlefield. Where is Joshua Chamberlain from? It’s as if his fears of intimacy were suddenly allayed: If Joshua could do it, so could he. Rather than fall back, the prudent thing to do, he led a bayonet charge. His military career began slowly, when in 1862 he took a year's leave from Bowdoin College (where he taught modern … Chamberlain's family had served in wars dating back to the American Revolution, so he had a great appreciation for the military. Earlier the previous day, while leading an attack on Confederate positions outside Petersburg, a rebel shot ricocheted off a rock and slammed into the general’s right hip as he led his men on foot. Patients frequently died of infections caused by the very catheters meant to save their lives.[v]. His father, also named Joshua, was a farmer and one of the area's leading citizens in civil and military affairs. Heart. No statue of him was ever erected … Chamberlain’s surgeon was hopeful, and the procedure appeared to have worked for a few months until it opened again, making his chronic issues worse than ever. A shadow seemed to brood over me, dark wings folding as it were [or a pall] and wrapping me in their embrace. The fistula most likely acquired during medical treatment caused more chronic problems for Chamberlain in the next fifty years than the actual minié ball hitting him on the battlefield. Remarkably, he managed to stay on his feet with his saber jammed into the ground on one side and the brigade colors on the other until his men passed. After watching a film clip from the movie Gettysburg and discussing the scenario in our class, I … You can find plenty of information in books and on the Internet that discuss the varying opinions as to Joshua Chamberlain’s personal actions and orders. McAllister, Charles K. “The Lion of the Union: The Pelvic Wound of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.” The Journal of Urology. Raised from a modest life in the small town of Brewer Maine, Joshua Chamberlain chose the professions of ministry and academia filling in the post of Professor of Rhetoric at Bowdoin College during the tumultuous 1850s. Website Design & Hosting by 270net Technologies, Inc. [iii] Harmon, William. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet charge by the 20th Maine was one of the most fabled episodes in the Civil War and propelled Col. … I’ll go back and do my research before I post on that subject. Prior to the war, Chamberlain was a professor of rhetoric and theology at … “My darling wife I am lying mortally wounded the doctors think, but my mind & heart are at peace Jesus Christ is my all-sufficient savior. Cemetery Ridge, Little Round Top, and Big Round Top. The outgoing governor, Alonzo Garcelon, summon… In “real life” there is some controversy over exactly what Colonel Chamberlain did – and didn’t – do on Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. Chamberlain was brave, and unlucky: after another slow recovery he was wounded a fourth time (during the Siege of Petersburg). The 20th Maine was described as a “hell of a regiment”, which was not a compliment. Gen. Joshua Chamberlain was selected by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to accept Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. In 1883, another surgery attempted to close the fistula by taking skin from the perineum to create a flap closure. March 2000, pp 713-16. (The surgeons said it would kill him, but it took fifty years to develop.) Gov. Chamberlain was already famous in the Army of the Potomac for his Little Round Top heroics at Gettysburg the previous July, and when he returned to active duty in April 1864 after an extended illness, he was given command of the Keystone State regiments. Retrieved June 27, 2020, from https://www.urotoday.com/urinary-catheters-home/history-of-urinary-catheters.html. For his leadership he was awarded the Medal of Honor, and also received his second wound (first one at Fredericksburg). Today we take catheterization for granted as a common procedure. I go to him. This is your last.’” [ii], Stretcher bearers took Chamberlain to the brigade hospital three miles away, where surgeons attempted to extract the minié ball. He was promoted to brigade command in June 1864, but hardly had time to make a difference before being felled with his third wound. He’d known it was coming, having said his farewells to a few men in camp the previous night. Chamberlain at Petersburg: The Charge at Fort Hell. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine on September 8, 1828. Chamberlain was a 34-year-old commander of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War. Fanny & Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. I learned about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain while enrolled in a leadership class. Within a few months, he resumed his courtship of Mary Todd, who had graciously waited for him. He bled and leaked urine from the left hip, suggesting a bone fragment or other debris broke the skin as well. Urethral catheters were first used 3,000 years ago in Rome, but they weren’t considered safe until thinner, flexible, sterilized materials were readily available in the 20th century. A person may enter the hospital for surgery or because they’ve got a urinary or kidney infection, and doctors insert flexible, thin, sterilized catheters. Exploratory field hospital surgery was far from the end of Chamberlain’s medical odyssey. Thanks to a popular novel and an often-televised 1993 film based upon it, the perception of the fighting on Little Round Top often focuses exclusively on the role played by the 20th Maine Regiment and its commander, Col. Joshua Chamberlain. Dr. Bernard Vanderkieft, head surgeon of Division I’s general hospital, took charge of Chamberlain’s case. In Chamberlain’s case, Dr. Vanderkeift’s treatment plan often needed adjusting the longer he stubbornly refused to die.