4/8: On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2024
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Fields-Unlikely-Lawrence-Chamberlain/dp/0525510087/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1707433634&sr=1-1
Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. His colleagues were shocked when he volunteered for the Union army, but he was undeterred and later became known as one of the North’s greatest heroes: On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers. Despite being wounded at Petersburg—and told by two surgeons he would die—Chamberlain survived the war, going on to be elected governor of Maine four times and serve as president of Bowdoin College.
July 1863 Bryan House, 2nd Corps area for Pickett's advance
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batsch with Ronald White. The new book is The Life of Chamberlain, on Great Fields, |
| 0:10.0 | Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. He's just had the moment of moments. |
| 0:15.2 | Here we here all these decades later we still talk about what happened that day, |
| 0:20.0 | the second day of Gettysburg, July 2nd, 1863, but there is a life to live. |
| 0:25.2 | And yet Chamberlain takes the risk of going back to war. There was plenty of |
| 0:30.8 | opportunity for him to rotate behind the lines. |
| 0:33.7 | He chose none of it. |
| 0:35.4 | He went back to war and he's given a brigade. |
| 0:38.0 | We're now at Petersburg. |
| 0:40.1 | It is the summer of, I believe it's the summer of 64. |
| 0:46.0 | Chamberlain is ordered of direct frontal assault. |
| 0:49.2 | He hesitates. |
| 0:50.0 | Why, Ron? |
| 0:51.8 | He realizes that this is catastrophic, that this could result in literally all of his men |
| 0:57.8 | being killed. |
| 0:59.2 | They're marching into an incredible defensive position of the Confederates at Petersburg. |
| 1:04.4 | Yes, and he asks for the orders to be written. |
| 1:07.8 | Doesn't he do that? |
| 1:08.9 | He asked for written orders. |
| 1:10.5 | He does. |
| 1:11.5 | He's not quite sure that of the veracity of the order that he's been given |
| 1:15.0 | or or if the person giving the order understands fully the situation. |
... |
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