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The John Batchelor Show

7/8: On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White (Author)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, News, Society & Culture, Arts

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

7/8: On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White (Author)

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.

1879 Augusta ME

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBS I on the World. I'm John Bachelor with Ron White. His book is On Great Fields,

0:08.0

The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Yes, he stood his ground at Little Round Top. Yes, he speaks of the war to an audience

0:16.9

that wants to remember, that learns for the first time, and is dealing with a country that

0:21.9

is torn into. The Confederacy remained defiant of

0:27.4

Washington and the politicians of the latter part of the 19th century didn't do a

0:32.3

lot to heal the country. There was cronyism,

0:36.4

there was what you'd have to say today total corruption, the Gilded Age for heaven's

0:40.7

sakes. People are making money and they're not very careful about it.

0:45.2

The Republicans dominate the conversation except for Grover Cleveland, who is an unusual

0:51.0

Democrat in that he comes from New York State, a solid Republican state.

0:56.0

Grover Cleveland is the only disruption to the Republican supremacy in the latter part

1:01.0

of the 19th century. We come now to a battle that takes place in

1:04.9

Augusta, Maine, the capital. As I understand it quickly and it gets confusing

1:10.0

there that Republicans who usually win. The Democrats who win once, Governor Garzon is a

1:16.8

Democrat. They are the greenbacks, which is a third party having to do with sound money that is that'll do and they have a

1:26.8

candidate too it comes to the vote of the car salon wins the vote in 79 they vote every year in Maine and we come to 80

1:37.4

when the governor manipulates the results of the ballot.

1:43.1

Ron, that's as far as I can go to wind up to this,

1:46.8

what you'd have to say the Battle of Augusta.

1:48.9

What happens?

1:50.1

What happens is, what you began to suggest the great count out where they began to take away the votes

1:56.6

and the Republicans who thought they had won a decisive election for the governorship,

...

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