This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

It is the winter of 1848, Brunswick, Maine, Bowden College.

A young man, his name is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain called Lawrence,

stands before the faculty. The test is to enter Bowden late. This is the second term.

And he's prepared for this all his life. I welcome Ronald White. He's the author of a new

biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain entitled

On Great Fields, the Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain called

Lawrence. Ron, a very good evening to you. Thank you very much and congratulations. That

moment Lawrence was standing before a faculty. He could only

dream of being a member of the Bowden College. I think there were more than 100 students at the time.

There were eight faculty members. What is it that they were asking him to do? How did he perform

that day? And what does it mean about his skill that he could memorize at that

length? Good evening to you. Good evening. Well, this was a classical education. And so, yes,

as you suggest, he was asked to say from memory some of the classics of Greek and Roman literature, as well as saying in Greek

from the New Testament. So this was a frightening moment in a way, but as you suggest also, he

had prepared for it. In fact, he'd actually delayed his entrance so that he knew he was fully

sufficient in using Greek. It was quite a moment. It was almost an

inquisition, and yet he was excited to be a part of it and to become a student at Bowden College.

He will be 20 years old this year. He's born 1828. We need to go back to his origins.

Brewer, Maine, on the Pinobscot River across from Bangor.

His father and mother were hardy. Congregationalists. Mother was born 1803. Father was born 1799.

...