Colonel Joushua Chamberlain essays

Colonel Joushua Chamberlain essays The Civil War battle of Gettysburg has been called the High Tide of the Confederacy. Mr. Shaara places the reader in the shoes of the major characters of the battle, those whose actions influenced the outcome the most. This report is about one such character, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain. The incident he was a part of happened on the second day of the battle. On that second day, General Lee sent a major part of his army to attack the troops on the steep sided hill, Little Round Top, on the Union right. For the first time in the war his men were attacking the enemy on the high ground. Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and his regiment, the 20th Maine, were placed on the side of Little Round Top that faced south towards the larger hill, Round Top. His men were not even facing the direction that the Confederate attack was expected from. They were facing the narrow gap between the hills. Colonel Chamberlain was not a professional soldier. He was a citizen soldier. He had been a professor at a small college in the state of Maine before volunteering to serve his country. He was in the war doing his duty as an American. He was not to know that on this day, he would make history. His actions were to help cause General Lee to abandon his invasion of the north. You have to admire Chamberlain by overcoming his inexperience in war tactics to push back General Lees army at Little Round Top. Once in position on Little Round Top, it didnt take long for Colonel Chamberlain to realized that if the Confederates could fight their way through that narrow gap, past his troops, they would be in the rear of the main Union army. It could mean the defeat of the Union army at Gettysburg. After the assault on the west face of Little Round Top began by the Confederate army, it didnt take long for the 20th Maine to come under attack b ...