Speaker 1: Pushkin. The men of the twentieth Main were out of ammunition.
Speaker 1: It was a boiling hot afternoon in the Pennsylvania countryside.
Speaker 1: The soldiers were standing on a rocky hill. It was
Speaker 1: dotted with boulders and pine trees, and it marked the
Speaker 1: far end of the Union army line. The date was
Speaker 1: July second, eighteen sixty three, and they were at the
Speaker 1: Battle of Gettysburg, facing a company of Confederate soldiers who
Speaker 1: were about to run them down. The twentieth Main was
Speaker 1: led by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. He was tall, with side
Speaker 1: swept hair and a truly giant mustache, I mean huge.
Speaker 1: Joshua Chamberlain had never planned to be a soldier. He
Speaker 1: was going to be a man or a teacher. He
Speaker 1: was quiet and mild mannered. He loved music and literature.
Speaker 1: But the choice he made in that moment on a
Speaker 1: hill called Little Roundtop would make him one of the
Speaker 1: most famous fighters in the whole Civil War. In front
Speaker 1: of him, Joshua could see dozens of wounded and dead
Speaker 1: soldiers from both sides, and beside him he could see
Speaker 1: his men, the fear in their eyes as they fired
Speaker 1: the last shots in their rifles. Joshua looked down towards
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hill where the enemy was waiting,
Speaker 1: and he knew it was only minutes until the Confederate
Speaker 1: soldiers came. He had no cards left to play, so
Speaker 1: he screamed down the line, Mayonnets, I'm j R. Martinez
Speaker 1: and this is Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage. The
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the
Speaker 1: United States. It's awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat
Speaker 1: at the risk of life, above and beyond the call
Speaker 1: of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way
Speaker 1: up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in
Speaker 1: the field to the White House. This show is about
Speaker 1: those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what
Speaker 1: their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice.
Speaker 1: If you're a Civil War buff, and I'm guessing some
Speaker 1: of you are, you've probably heard the name Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
Speaker 1: There has been a lot, and I mean a lot
Speaker 1: written about Joshua. Have you seen the movie Gettysburg. Jeff
Speaker 1: Daniels played him extra large mustache, and all every book
Speaker 1: or movie about Joshua talks about those bayonets they made
Speaker 1: him famous, and he received a Medal of Honor for
Speaker 1: that action on Little Roundtime. And while the bayonet moment
Speaker 1: is pretty epic, I think what makes Joshua really special
Speaker 1: is something entirely different. His empathy, his compassion. Because he
Speaker 1: wasn't just a brilliant leader. He thought a lot about
Speaker 1: why and how he should lead, how he should treat
Speaker 1: his men and the enemy. And he was fighting for
Speaker 1: the idea of America. And he didn't want to just
Speaker 1: stay at home with his good job and his wife
Speaker 1: and his kids, even though he could have, even though
Speaker 1: everyone expected him to. He wanted to set an example,
Speaker 1: not just a bravery, but of kindness. And he was
Speaker 1: driven by the hope that a broken country commended itself.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty one, when the Civil War began, Joshua
Speaker 1: Chamberlain was living a quiet, scholarly life way up north
Speaker 1: in Brunswick, Maine. He was a professor at a small
Speaker 1: college called Boden. He was a thin, shy guy with
Speaker 1: the stutter. He had overcome it by learning different languages,
Speaker 1: and pretty soon he spoke nine of them, and he
Speaker 1: was super religious. In fact, his original plan was to
Speaker 1: become a minister or a missionary. He had gone to
Speaker 1: the seminary, but he was also in love with the
Speaker 1: girl named Fanny. They were both obsessed with music. They
Speaker 1: met when he led her church choir. Now we don't
Speaker 1: have recordings of Joshua's voice, of course, but we have
Speaker 1: lots and lots of his letters, articles and speeches. So
Speaker 1: we're going to have our old friend Ben NADAFH Hoffrey
Speaker 1: read his words for us. Here. Here's a line from
Speaker 1: one of the love letters he wrote Fanny early on.
Speaker 2: They seem foolish for me to tell you again that
Speaker 2: I love you more and more every day, But it
Speaker 2: is becoming so much more true every day that it
Speaker 2: is really new.
Speaker 1: Fanny didn't want to be a minister's wife, so Joshua
Speaker 1: took a job at Boden. He and Fanny got married
Speaker 1: and had two kids, Daisy, a girl, and Willis a boy.
Speaker 1: Their life was quiet and calm, filled with music and
Speaker 1: art and prayer. Then in April of eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: shots were fired on Fort Sumter, and Joshua's students at
Speaker 1: Boden started to join the fight. He noticed the empty chairs,
Speaker 1: the familiar faces missing from his classroom, and he supported
Speaker 1: the war. He believed deeply in what the founding fathers
Speaker 1: had fought for a nation undivided.
Speaker 2: I feel that we are fighting for our country, for
Speaker 2: our flag, not as so many stars and stripes, but
Speaker 2: as the emblem of a great and good and powerful nation,
Speaker 2: fighting to settle the question of whether we are a
Speaker 2: nation or only a basket of chips.
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure what a basket of chips means,
Speaker 1: but I like it. By then, Joshua was thirty two,
Speaker 1: almost ten years older than the average Union soldier. He
Speaker 1: had a family. Nobody would have judged him for staying
Speaker 1: at home, but he felt that he had a duty
Speaker 1: to serve, so in the summer of eighteen sixty two
Speaker 1: he wrote to the governor of Maine and asked to
Speaker 1: join the army.
Speaker 2: I fear this war, so costly of blood and treasure,
Speaker 2: will not cease until the men of the North are
Speaker 2: willing to leave good positions and sacrifice the dearest personal interests.
Speaker 1: Well it worked. He became a lieutenant colonel with the
Speaker 1: newly formed twentieth Main Regiment, and this nerdy guy who
Speaker 1: wore little glasses and didn't drink and wouldn't hunt, learned
Speaker 1: how to fight. He got really close to his men.
Speaker 1: They were farmers, lumberjacks, sailors, and merchants. They'd all volunteered
Speaker 1: to leave their homes across the state of Maine. The
Speaker 1: regiment started with more than nine hundred and seventy men.
Speaker 1: One year later they had fewer than four hundred. Joshua
Speaker 1: led his men in the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg. He
Speaker 1: watched as they were wounded and killed, and later as
Speaker 1: they called smallpox or died from sunstroke. Then came the
Speaker 1: night of July first, eighteen sixty three. The twentieth main
Speaker 1: were marching through the darkened streets of a little Pennsylvania town.
Speaker 1: They had been going since early morning, traveling nearly thirty
Speaker 1: miles on foot in the sweltering heat, carrying packs that
Speaker 1: weighed more than fifty pounds, drinking the last water from
Speaker 1: their canteens. Some men had collapsed from exhaustion, and now
Speaker 1: the unit was marching under a moonlit sky. People came
Speaker 1: out of the houses to watch as they passed. Women
Speaker 1: brought the soldiers food and water. Young girls gave them flowers.
Speaker 1: They sang them patriotic songs. Years later, Joshua wrote about
Speaker 1: how it felt to be heading into this battle.
Speaker 2: We knew that a great battle was soon to be fought,
Speaker 2: a desperate and momentous one. But what impressed my mind
Speaker 2: was the great calm, the uncertainty, and seeming lack of
Speaker 2: tactical plan. We were aware that other troops were coming
Speaker 2: up on one side and the other, but we had
Speaker 2: no means of knowing or judging which side would take
Speaker 2: the offensive, in which the defensive, or where the battle
Speaker 2: would begin.
Speaker 1: Finally, the men settled down for the night. It was
Speaker 1: around one in the morning. Joshua could have asked for
Speaker 1: a house to stay in, after all, he was an officer,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't his style. He just slept on the
Speaker 1: ground with his guys. As he put it in a
Speaker 1: letter he wrote his wife, I.
Speaker 2: Hate to see a man always on the spring to
Speaker 2: get the best of everything for himself. I prefer to
Speaker 2: take things as they come, and I am as well
Speaker 2: and comfortable as anybody, and no one's the worst for it.
Speaker 1: That kind of sum Joshua up. Maybe it's the main thing,
Speaker 1: but I think it's more about who he was as
Speaker 1: a person. As the men tried to fall asleep, they
Speaker 1: must have been terrified about what was waiting for them.
Speaker 1: The battle had already begun, and it was only a
Speaker 1: few miles away in a little town named Gettysburg. They
Speaker 1: had passed broken carts and dead horses. They heard the
Speaker 1: artillery booming. It was the sound of two armies converging.
Speaker 1: The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had seventy five thousand men.
Speaker 1: They were confident after two victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.
Speaker 1: They were led by Robert Eedley, who seemed unable to
Speaker 1: lose a battle. On the Union side. Joshua's side was
Speaker 1: the Army of the Potomac. It was a hunt than
Speaker 1: twelve thousand men strong, and it was led by General
Speaker 1: George Meade, and they would all face off at Gettysburg,
Speaker 1: a town of twenty four hundred residents surrounded by gently
Speaker 1: rolling fields and rocky hills. Think of a postcard of
Speaker 1: a perfect farming town. It would be the site of
Speaker 1: the biggest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. On
Speaker 1: July second, eighteen sixty three. The Union lines at Gettysburg
Speaker 1: were set up in a configuration that kind of looked
Speaker 1: like a large, upside down fish hook. The points started
Speaker 1: in the southeast, and then it went north briefly before
Speaker 1: hooking down and going straight south. The very end of
Speaker 1: the Union line was about two miles south of town,
Speaker 1: a hill that locals called Little Roundtop. Union leaders felt
Speaker 1: good about this setup, but when their chief engineer looked
Speaker 1: at Little Roundtop through his binoculars, he realized there weren't
Speaker 1: any Union soldiers actually on the hill. It's a huge problem.
Speaker 1: If the Confederates took Little Roundtop first and put their
Speaker 1: artillery on top of it, they could blast away at
Speaker 1: the whole Union line. Then he spotted light glinting off
Speaker 1: the Confederate guns. The assault on the Union's left flank
Speaker 1: was about to begin. Joshua, Chamberlain and the twentieth Maine
Speaker 1: were ordered to go to Little Roundtop as fast as
Speaker 1: they possibly could.
Speaker 2: The bugle sounded to the left at utmost speed down.
Speaker 2: We pushed at the double quick straight for the strife,
Speaker 2: not seeking roads or minding roughness of ground, thorn hedges,
Speaker 2: stone fences, or myrie swamps. The earth was quaking, sky ablaze.
Speaker 2: The fight was desperate already.
Speaker 1: Joshua's two younger brothers were riding with him. Tom had
Speaker 1: enlisted in the twentieth Maine at the age of twenty one.
Speaker 1: John was there too, but not as a fighter. He
Speaker 1: was a member of the Christian Commission, which supported soldiers.
Speaker 1: They got to the south side of Little Round Top
Speaker 1: and headed up the hill.
Speaker 2: It had a rough forbidding face, wrinkled with jagged ledges,
Speaker 2: bearded with mighty boulders, strewn with fragments of rock like
Speaker 2: the Battleground of Giants.
Speaker 1: They were midway to the top when the Confederates fired.
Speaker 2: Shells burst overhead and brought down treetops. As hissing fragments fell,
Speaker 2: shots swept close above our heads.
Speaker 1: Joshua immediately sent Tom to the back of the line
Speaker 1: and john Ford to help him with the wounded. He
Speaker 1: knew that if they all died together, it would be
Speaker 1: too hard for his mother to take. Then it got
Speaker 1: weirdly silent. The thunder of Confederate artillery had stopped. Joshua
Speaker 1: knew this could only mean one thing. The enemy was
Speaker 1: about to attack Little Round Top, and their artillery men
Speaker 1: didn't want to risk hitting their own troops. Soldiers in
Speaker 1: gray uniforms suddenly began appearing below them.
Speaker 3: Joshua tried to get a better look. I sprang forward,
Speaker 3: mounted a great rock. Thick groups in gray were pushing
Speaker 3: up to gain our left flank. There was no mistaking this.
Speaker 3: How many were coming we could not know.
Speaker 1: Joshua had been told to hold the hill at all costs,
Speaker 1: because the men from Maine were protecting the entire Union line.
Speaker 2: If a strong force should gain our rear, our brigade
Speaker 2: would be caught, as if by a mighty shear's blade,
Speaker 2: and be cut and crushed. That front had to be held,
Speaker 2: and that rear covered. Something must be done quickly.
Speaker 1: He couldn't have known it, but they were fighting, the
Speaker 1: fifteenth Alabama Regiment, led by Colonel William Oates. They were
Speaker 1: seasoned fighters, They were fierce, and to Joshua it looked
Speaker 1: like they had twice as many men as he did.
Speaker 2: The fierce assault lasted with increasing fury, for an intense hour.
Speaker 2: The edge of conflict swayed to and fro. At times
Speaker 2: I saw around me more of the enemy than of
Speaker 2: my own men. All around was a strange mingled roar,
Speaker 2: shouts of defiance, rally and desperation, And underneath stifled moans,
Speaker 2: gasping prayers, and whispers of loved names. Everywhere men were
Speaker 2: torn and broken, staggering.
Speaker 1: The twentieth Maine hit back with concentrated firepower. For a moment,
Speaker 1: it worked.
Speaker 2: We had held the ground at all costs. But now
Speaker 2: that the smoke dissolved, we saw our dead and wounded
Speaker 2: all out in front of us, mingled with more of
Speaker 2: the enemy. They were scattered all the way down to
Speaker 2: the very feet of the hostile line, now rallying in
Speaker 2: the low shrubbery for a nuance at They knew our
Speaker 2: weakness now, and they were gathering force.
Speaker 1: And then the Confederates came.
Speaker 2: We were enveloped in fire and sure to be overwhelmed
Speaker 2: when the great surge struck us. Already I could see
Speaker 2: the bold flankers on their right darting out and creeping
Speaker 2: and crawling under the smoke to gain our left.
Speaker 1: In those days, someone always held the flag of the regiment,
Speaker 1: and this was no different. The color sergeant for the
Speaker 1: twentieth Man held their flag in one hand and his
Speaker 1: rifle in the other. As bullets snapped the arrow around him.
Speaker 1: The regiment's ammunition began to run low. Men grabbed bullets
Speaker 1: from the boxes of fallen friends or even enemies.
Speaker 2: Our fire was slackening, our last rounds of shot had
Speaker 2: been fired, and what I had sent for could not
Speaker 2: get to us. I saw the faces of my men,
Speaker 2: one after another when they had fired their last cartridge,
Speaker 2: turn anxiously toward mine for a moment, then square to
Speaker 2: the front, again to the front of them laid deaf.
Speaker 1: There are conflicting reports about the actual size of the
Speaker 1: Alabama regiment. At the time, it was believed that they
Speaker 1: had roughly six hundred and fifty men, twice the size
Speaker 1: of the twentieth Main. Later William Mote said he had
Speaker 1: fewer than four hundred. I don't think it really matters.
Speaker 1: Joshua and his men were out of bullets, and the
Speaker 1: Confederates just kept on coming. So Joshua, in an instant,
Speaker 1: made a crazy decision.
Speaker 2: Desperate as the chances were, there was nothing for it
Speaker 2: but to take the offensive. The men turned towards me.
Speaker 2: One word was enough bayonet. It caught like fire and
Speaker 2: swept along the ranks.
Speaker 1: Civil War bayonets were sharpened steel blades that fit over
Speaker 1: the end of a rifle. Soldiers rarely used them unless
Speaker 1: they were desperate. Well, they were desperate now. I remember
Speaker 1: when I was an Ira we had bayonets on our guns,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you the idea of having to
Speaker 1: use them, or having to stab someone, is way different
Speaker 1: than shooting at them. It's more personal, more daunting. But
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Joshua ordered his men to do. Using
Speaker 1: their bayonets, they pushed the Confederates back down that hill.
Speaker 1: Some of the enemy fled, more surrendered. The Battle of
Speaker 1: Little Round Top was over. Years later, Joshua was humble
Speaker 1: about his victory and complimented his foes.
Speaker 2: Had we not used up our ammunition, and had we
Speaker 2: continued to meet the enemy musket to musket, this give
Speaker 2: and take would soon have finished us by reason of
Speaker 2: the enemy's superior numbers. It was a psychological success, a
Speaker 2: miracle in the scheme of military science. Those brave Alabama fellows,
Speaker 2: none braver or better in either army, were victims of
Speaker 2: a surprise.
Speaker 1: I think surprise is right because Chamberlain basically brought a
Speaker 1: knife to a gunfight and it worked. Any celebration was brief.
Speaker 1: The dead and the wounded were scattered everywhere. The twentieth
Speaker 1: Main suffered one hundred and thirty casualties, about one third
Speaker 1: of the regiment. Amazingly, Joshua's brothers Tom and John both survived.
Speaker 1: Joshua wrote to Fanny, what.
Speaker 2: Fighting that was? A thousand dead horses lay on fields
Speaker 2: torn by shells, and half as many men. I left
Speaker 2: thirty two noble fellows dead. Gathered them all and laid
Speaker 2: them side by side in the grave.
Speaker 1: Joshua would go down in history for a little roundtop,
Speaker 1: but the bravery that came next was every bit as heroic,
Speaker 1: and honestly, maybe even harder. After Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain was
Speaker 1: broken down physically and mentally. He wrote to his army doctor.
Speaker 2: I am convinced that I can no longer continue these
Speaker 2: duties without the most serious consequences.
Speaker 1: He went home to his family and recovered, and then
Speaker 1: he raced back to the front. He just couldn't stay
Speaker 1: away from the battlefield. But three months after he returned
Speaker 1: to action, he was out again. This time he had malaria.
Speaker 1: He was lucky to survive. During the war, malaria caused
Speaker 1: ten thousand deaths. Once again, Joshua got back to combat
Speaker 1: as quickly as he could. On June eighteenth, he was
Speaker 1: leading his men at the Battle of Petersburg outside of Richmond, Virginia,
Speaker 1: and he was shot at first, he wasn't quite sure
Speaker 1: where he was hit.
Speaker 2: In the hiss and roar and blinding flying earth, I
Speaker 2: felt a sharp, hot flush that seemed to cut the
Speaker 2: spinal narrow out of my backbone. My thought was that
Speaker 2: I had been shot in the back, and the shame
Speaker 2: of it was worse than death. To be shot in
Speaker 2: the back in the face of the enemy, this was
Speaker 2: worse than refusing to attack. I was lost, dead or alive,
Speaker 2: and better dead.
Speaker 1: To be clear, the way he viewed it, if he
Speaker 1: was shot in the back, people might have thought he
Speaker 1: was running away, so he tried to stay upright, bracing
Speaker 1: himself on his sword. He watched as his men went
Speaker 1: past him, looking at him with pity.
Speaker 2: But then I looked down for the first time I
Speaker 2: saw the blood spurting out of my right hip side,
Speaker 2: not shot in the back. Then I do not think
Speaker 2: I was ever so happy in my life.
Speaker 1: He lay on the ground in a pool of blood.
Speaker 1: When one of his men tried to pull him out
Speaker 1: of danger, Joshua refused. He didn't want to take a
Speaker 1: single soldier off the battlefield.
Speaker 2: I would not let him try to get me away.
Speaker 2: It would not be worth the cost. I told them
Speaker 2: it was no good. I was not worth it. Begging pardon,
Speaker 2: they said, but you are not in command now.
Speaker 1: When they finally got him off the field, the surgeon
Speaker 1: told Joshua that he would die. He rode to Fanny
Speaker 1: and his kids to say, goodbye.
Speaker 2: My darling wife. I am lying mortally wounded, the doctors think,
Speaker 2: but my mind and heart are at peace. God bless
Speaker 2: and keep and comfort you, precious one. You have been
Speaker 2: a precious wife to me. To know and love you
Speaker 2: makes life it in death beautiful. Cherish the darlings, and
Speaker 2: do not grieve too much for me. Live for the children.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that just make you melt? The bullet had done
Speaker 1: major internal damage, and yet somehow Joshua lived. In those
Speaker 1: days before antiseptics and antibiotics. It was pretty much a miracle.
Speaker 1: And what did a miracle signify to a man of
Speaker 1: God that he should go back to war? Of course,
Speaker 1: by November, just five months after he was wounded, Joshua
Speaker 1: was at the front. He couldn't even get on a
Speaker 1: horse or walk one hundred yards. Nobody would have expected
Speaker 1: him to be there, but he felt it was his duty.
Speaker 1: He had to show bravery and honor. Given how brave
Speaker 1: and honorable his men had been. He wrote to his
Speaker 1: parents to try to explain it.
Speaker 2: I owe the country three years service. It is a
Speaker 2: time when every man should stand by his guns, and
Speaker 2: I am not scared or hurt enough yet to be
Speaker 2: willing to face the rear when other men are marked
Speaker 2: to the front.
Speaker 1: He fought in the battles of Five Forks and at
Speaker 1: Quaker Road. The Union troops were victorious in both, and
Speaker 1: the end of the war was coming. All the while,
Speaker 1: reporters were there watching Joshua ride in about his heroism
Speaker 1: in the North. He was becoming a household name. And finally,
Speaker 1: on April ninth, eighteen sixty five, Robert ed Lee surrendered
Speaker 1: at Appomattox. Joshua was there, and he was asked to
Speaker 1: lead the surrender ceremonies. Even though he had fought the
Speaker 1: Confederate forces for so long and lost so many of
Speaker 1: his men and friends, he was determined to make the
Speaker 1: ceremonies honorable, respectful, even kind. The two armies met on
Speaker 1: the battlefield one last time. Joshua was at the front
Speaker 1: of the Union troops. The men of the twentieth Main
Speaker 1: were beside him, and then the Confederate units came one
Speaker 1: by one and laid down their arms. Joshua looked at
Speaker 1: the ragged Southern troops and his heart went out to them.
Speaker 1: He saw their humanity, so he had his soldiers salute them.
Speaker 1: The first Confederate general to approach realize what Joshua's men
Speaker 1: were doing, and he dipped his sword in a bow of.
Speaker 2: Things on our part, not a sound of trumpet more,
Speaker 2: nor a roll of drum, not a cheer, but an
Speaker 2: odd stillness and breath holding, as if it were the
Speaker 2: passing of the dead.
Speaker 1: Accepting their surrender with empathy was the only way he
Speaker 1: knew how to act. Towards the end, Joshua heard a
Speaker 1: Confederate general shouting at his troops. Joshua approached him, hoping
Speaker 1: to say something supportive, but that general said, quote, you
Speaker 1: may forgive us, but we won't be forgiven. We hate you, sir.
Speaker 1: Joshua was stunned, because that's not how we thought about it.
Speaker 1: He saw past the fighting to what they were fighting for,
Speaker 1: and he hoped that all of the bloodshed could lead
Speaker 1: to something better for everyone.
Speaker 2: The whole country will be drawn together under the law
Speaker 2: of its larger life, its deepest convictions, its highest aims.
Speaker 1: After the war, Joshua Chamberlain returned to Maine. He was
Speaker 1: thirty six, and he was famous. He thought about the
Speaker 1: war all the time. He covered his house with Civil
Speaker 1: War memorabilia. He went on speaking engagements across the country
Speaker 1: talking about his experiences. He loved being with Fanny and
Speaker 1: the kids, but he struggled with depression, in part because
Speaker 1: he was in constant pain from his bullet wound. He
Speaker 1: had more surgeries to try to fix it, but the
Speaker 1: damage would never fully heal. As a Civil War hero,
Speaker 1: he became a symbol of patriotism and leadership. Eighteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: he was elected governor of Maine, even though he had
Speaker 1: no political experience back then it was just a one
Speaker 1: year gig. He supported civil rights in public education. He
Speaker 1: welcomed immigrants to his state. He was elected three more times.
Speaker 1: He then became president of Voting College, where he used
Speaker 1: to teach. After that, he tried his hand at real
Speaker 1: estate and other businesses in Florida and New York City.
Speaker 1: His fame got him in the door, but none of
Speaker 1: his business ventures really worked, and nothing felt as good
Speaker 1: to him as talking about the war. In eighteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: Joshua was finally awarded the Medal of Honor for his
Speaker 1: actions at Gettysburg. Many Civil War heroes got their decorations
Speaker 1: around this time. They were starting to die of illnesses
Speaker 1: or of old age, and Congress wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: they were honored while they were still alive. His citation
Speaker 1: noted his quote daring heroism and great tenacity and holding
Speaker 1: his position on little round Top against repeated assaults. His
Speaker 1: beloved Fanny died in nineteen oh five, just six weeks
Speaker 1: shy of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, and Joshua passed in
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen at the age of eighty five. It was
Speaker 1: almost fifty years since he had been wounded, but he
Speaker 1: was still being treated by the same doctor who had
Speaker 1: saved his life at Petersburg. Whether it was a medical
Speaker 1: fact or just a symbolic gesture, the doctor listed Joshua's
Speaker 1: war wound as the cause of his death, and so
Speaker 1: he became one of the very last Civil War soldiers
Speaker 1: to die of his wounds. Like so many of the
Speaker 1: people we talk about here and so many people who served,
Speaker 1: Joshua Chamberlain was completely transformed by his time at war.
Speaker 1: He went into it as a shy, quiet man of God.
Speaker 1: He came out as a famous hero, but what never
Speaker 1: changed was his belief in the essential goodness of people.
Speaker 1: He didn't see the sides of the war as winners
Speaker 1: or losers. He saw them as Americans, all worthy of
Speaker 1: empathy and care, and he deeply believed that we owed
Speaker 1: kindness to each other, starting from the top down. He
Speaker 1: felt the president or any leader should set an example
Speaker 1: for the country.
Speaker 2: The heroes of history are not self seekers. They are saviors.
Speaker 2: They give their strength to the weak, the wrong of
Speaker 2: the imperiled, suffering and sacrifice they take on themselves. Summoned
Speaker 2: by troubles, they have brought more than peace, they have
Speaker 2: brought understanding.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening and supporting our show. Over
Speaker 1: the past year, we've gotten emails from some of you
Speaker 1: sharing some great stories of courage. You want to shout
Speaker 1: out Megan Hahan for sharing the stories of Private First
Speaker 1: Class Frank Gafney and Private Charles Sanscreen. She said, Private
Speaker 1: Gaffney's heroism closely rivals Sergeant Alvin York's, which we've covered,
Speaker 1: and Private Sanscreen received the Medal of Honor for his
Speaker 1: actions during the battle of Atlanta as part of the
Speaker 1: Union Army during the Civil War. Thank you Megan for sharing.
Speaker 1: If you have stories or people you would like to highlight,
Speaker 1: email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot fm.
Speaker 1: Please follow the show, share it with a friend, or
Speaker 1: leave a review. These are all zero calls. Ways to
Speaker 1: support us find us on social media at Pushkin pods
Speaker 1: or find me at I Am Jr. Martinez Medal of Honor.
Speaker 1: Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins and produced
Speaker 1: by Meredith Rollins and Ryan Schwikert. Voiceover in this episode
Speaker 1: by benn adaf Hoffrey. Our editor is Lydia Jane Kott.
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer is Constanza Gayadovo.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Arthur Gomperts. Original music by Eric Phillips.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. If
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