Life is strange, one life affecting so many – as Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart poignantly showed in “It’s a Wonderful Life” – but an historic story reinforces that point. It involves two brothers.
In national, state, and Civil War history, the name Joshua Chamberlain is famous, almost epic. He was the Colonel who – with bayonets – led the 20th Maine to hold the line at Gettysburg, helping turn the battle’s tide. The Union Army’s defeat of Lee, with Grant’s victory at Vicksburg, turned the tide of the war.
But Joshua was not the only Chamberlain in that battle or holding Little Round Top, turning a battle that arguably turned the war. A younger Chamberlain, Thomas, was also there, a Lt. Colonel.
Thomas was no less courageous at Gettysburg and, with the 20th Maine, served in multiple other battles, including Spotsylvania and Petersburg. In that last battle, Thomas’ famous brother Joshua was struck by a hollow bullet that went through one hip, hit the bladder and urethra, and lodged in the other.
The wound was assessed as fatal. Joshua was brought off the field to die. Thomas, refusing to accept this outcome, found a surgeon willing to work on Joshua through the night. Joshua lived, later writing that, on coming conscious, “Tom stood over me like a brother, such a one as he was.”
By Thomas’ determination to save Joshua, the elder brother lived to make more history, earning the Medal of Honor, conducting the “parade of Confederate infantry” at Appomattox Courthouse where Lee surrendered to Grant, serving four one-year terms as Maine’s Governor, putting down a rebellion at the Maine Capitol, and serving as President of Bowdoin College.
In total, Joshua Chamberlain – Civil War hero, promoted to General, recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery at Gettysburg – lived another 50 years, affecting thousands of lives for the better, because his younger brother Thomas, a footnote in history who died in 1896, had saved him.
The point is not – at this 130th anniversary year of Thomas’ death – to say more than this about Thomas, who was himself a courageous soldier, or even to bring to memory the way Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life” also saved his brother, who in turn saved others.
The point is that history elevates some, perhaps rightly, but their ability to contribute, the success that makes them worthy of memory, is always dependent on the actions, often forgotten, of others.
A famous historian once noted that, if we took all the books in all the libraries of the world, put them all together in one place, they would represent less than one percent of what actually happened. History is quick to remember leading lights, but those lights were lit by others, soon forgotten.
Does it matter? Not really. God sees all. History is just the record by humans for humans, but the story of these two historic brothers does remind me of words from William Wordsworth: “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
Remembered or not, others need us every day, and we need them. There is a truth the Chamberlain brothers knew and lived, as we can too.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
