“… if we should die today, then dream a dream of heaven
Take your northern heart with you to the grave
Be proud and true you are a Union soldier
Stand fast, ye are the boys of Maine…”
On 7 Jun 2019, the “Ballad of the 20th Maine” (not written and composed by Griffin Sherry until 2015) became Maine’s official State Ballad by an act of Governor Janet Mills. Organized from the Maine Volunteer Militia in August 1862, the 20th Maine mustered into Federal service several weeks later. The precursor regiment’s enlistments ran up in 1863, but about half the unit had signed papers to serve for the three years, so they were amalgamated into the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment raised primarily from the Brewer area. Assigned to the Army of the Potomac, the regiment fought in the Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville campaigns. At Gettysburg, the 20th was commanded by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain (aka “the Lion of Bowdoin”), a former professor at Maine’s Bowdoin College.
The 20th Maine’s Heroic Stand at Gettysburg
After marching all day and night to reach Gettysburg, the regiment was ordered late in the afternoon of 2 Jul to occupy critical terrain between two hills, Big and Little Round Top. Chamberlain was ordered to hold this position on the extreme left flank of the Union line at all costs; if outflanked by Confederates, the entire Union position would be in jeopardy. It was not long before the 15th and 47th Alabama Regiments attacked. The 20th Maine held off six attacks by the determined Alabama men, but Colonel Chamberlain knew that his regiment, low on ammunition, could not withstand the seventh. He, therefore, ordered a counterattack with fixed bayonets, and the 20th charged down the slopes of Little Round Top into the startled Confederates and broke their attack. The 20th Maine took an estimated 400 prisoners and stopped the Confederate threat to the Union flank. The crucial role these Maine militiamen played in the Union victory at Gettysburg exemplifies the military qualities of leadership, initiative, unit cohesion, and gallantry. Joshua Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions of 2 Jul 1863.
The Legacy of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment after the Civil War
At Appomattox Courthouse almost two years later, it was Brevet Major General Chamberlain, chosen to accept the Confederate surrender, who ordered Union troops to present arms to their former enemy as a matter of respect. After the war, Chamberlain was elected Governor of Maine and completed his military career as a major general in the Maine National Guard. The heritage of the 20th Maine is carried on today by the 133d Engineer Battalion, Maine Army National Guard. The 20th Maine regiment was mustered out of service on 16 Jun 1865. Out of a total enlistment of 1,621 men, nine officers and 138 enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded, and one officer with 145 enlisted men dying of disease; 15 were in Confederate prisons.
The Historical Influence of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment
“The lesson impressed on me as I stand here and my heart and mind traverse your faces, and the years that are gone is that in a great, momentous struggle like this commemorated here, it is a character that tells. I do not mean simply or chiefly bravery. Many a man has that, who may become surprised or disconcerted at a sudden change in the posture of affairs. What I mean by character is a firm and seasoned substance of soul. I mean such qualities or acquirements as intelligence, thoughtfulness, conscientiousness, right-mindedness, patience, fortitude, long-suffering and unconquerable resolve.”
Using those words, in part, for his speech at the dedication of the 20th Maine’s monument at Gettysburg in 1889, Joshua Chamberlain observed a fragment of the experience the combatants endured in 1863. And, what better manner to have described those events than his recounting of that episode of war: “I am sorry to have heard it intimated that any hesitated when [my] order was given. That was not so. No man hesitated. There might be an appearance of it to those who do not understand the whole situation. The left-wing bent back like an oxbow, or sharp lunette, had to take some little time to come up into the line of our general front so as to form the close, continuous edge which was to strike like a sword cut upon the enemy’s ranks. By the time they had got up and straightened the line, the center and salient, you may be sure, were already in motion. Nobody hesitated to obey the order. In fact, to tell the truth, the order was never given or imperfectly. The enemy was already pressing up the slope. There was only time or need for the words, ‘Bayonet! Forward to the right!’ The quick-witted and tense-nerved men caught the words out of my lips, and almost the action out of my hands.” The 20th Maine Reg. 3d Brig. 1st. Div. 5th Corps, under the command of Colonel Chamberlain, captured and held this position on the evening of 2 Jul 1863, pursuing the enemy from its front on the line marked by its monument below. The Regiment reportedly lost in the battle, with 130 killed and wounded out of 358 engaged. This monument at Gettysburg National Military Park marks the extreme left of the Union line during the battle of the third day.
Continued Recognition and Scholarly Work on the 20th Maine
On 2 Aug 1862, the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment was organized at Portland and mustered in under the command of Colonel Adelbert Ames and Lieutenant Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. The regiment left for Alexandria, Virginia, attached to 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Army of the Potomac. In September, at the Battle of Shepherdstown, Corporal Waterhouse became the regiment’s first casualty when he was wounded in the foot. Two other men were wounded, and Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain lost the first of many horses shot from under him during the Civil War. In December of that year at Fredericksburg, the regiment lost four men killed and 32 wounded, charging the deadly Confederate defenses on Marye’s Heights late in the day on the 13th and spending the next day and two nights lying in the open in front of enemy positions. The 20th Maine was one of the last regiments to retreat back across the Rappahannock, serving as a rear guard for the army. The regiment missed the battle at Chancellorsville in May 1863 due to being under smallpox quarantine. Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain pleaded with Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield to put the men into the fight and was refused. Chamberlain replied, “If we couldn’t do anything else, we would give the Rebels the smallpox!” Instead, the regiment was assigned to guard duty on the telegraph line from headquarters to United States Ford, although Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain joined the First Division for the fight and lost another horse shot from underneath him.
Following on the storied engagement at Gettysburg, the 20th continued to fight in battles chiefly at Bristoe, Rappahannock Station, Mile Run campaign, Battle of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna River, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Poplar Springs Church, First Hatcher’s Run, Dabney Mills, White Oak Road, Five Forks, Red River Campaign, Seven Days Battles and High Bridge before advancing to the surrender of General Lee’s CSA forces at Appomattox on 9 Apr 1985. On 16 Jul of that same year, the Regiment mustered out under the command of Colonel Ellis Spear after having marched in the Grand Review at Washington, DC.
20th Maine’s predecessor parent unit, “Maine’s Regiment,” the 133rd Engineer Battalion (est. 1760-1803), consisting of nine Companies, a Detachment, and two Sections, is represented on Army TWS by 69 registered members. Their DUI insignia of today bolsters the original spirit felt by those who served in the unit’s heroic confrontations 162 years ago.
Many books have been written about the 20th Maine, starting soon after the war ended in the late 1800s up to and including most recently:
Bayonet! Forward: My Civil War Reminiscences, by: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain;
Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine and the Gettysburg Campaign, by Thomas A. Desjardin;
In the Hands of Providence: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the American Civil War, by Alice Rains Trulock;
With a Flash of his Sword: The Writings of Maj. Holman S. Melcher, 20th Maine Infantry, Edited by William B. Styple.
Monuments and memorials to the 20th are likewise numerous, including ones at
Gorham, ME, Colby College, Salisbury NC prison camp and at Andersonville. Documentary films and videos featuring this unit most well-known have included “Gettysburg” (1993), “Gods and Generals” (2003), “Some Nights” (2012), and “Lions in Blue and Gray: Joshua Chamberlain and Stonewall Jackson” (2024).
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