which was what often tried to do as well. so jonathan, thank you.

this is our largest lincoln ever. we have 350 attendees from my count, 38 states plus the district, columbia. it's really incredible to. see all of you here. it is a great pleasure for me to introduce our first speaker, ronald c white, who, as far as i know, is not a relative of mine, but i often tell people that he is and on occasion, people ask me to sign his books, which i always gladly oblige. ron is the new york times best selling author of to presidential biographies. abe lincoln a biography, an american ulysses, a light the

life of ulysses grant. he is also the author of lincoln's speech the second inaugural, the eloquent president, a portrait of lincoln through his words and lincoln in private, which won baroness lincoln award. his most recent book, which speak about this morning, is on fields the life and unlikely heroism of joshua lawrence chamberlain. please give join me in giving a lincoln forum forum welcome ron white. thank you, john, for your friendship and your leadership then harold for the invitation to be here and all of you already we've had wonderful conversations. we will certainly have more as the time goes forward. as i prepared biography of joshua lawrence chamberlain and i received a telephone call from, brunswick, maine the woman

herself as a consultant charged with rewriting the script to for visitors to see the remarkable chamberlain. after we talked for a while i asked her at the end of the conversation well, who comes to the chamberlain home? well, she said about 60% are chamberlain fans. they just packed their way. she said the other 40% are people who have been wrangled by their friends or relative. so already a few of you have identified yourselves as part of the 40%. i suspect this gathering, it's less than 40% on the afternoon, july 2nd, 1863. joshua lawrence chamberlain leading the 20th main regiment, received orders to defend the far left line of, the union army. the colonel of the 20th maine, was five feet, ten and a half inches tall.

with his erect posture, he appeared be about six feet tall. he was handsome, lean, sandy hillard care. and if you look carefully the photograph what he called his ferocious -- mustache his twinkling conveyed his deep affection. the men that he led. yet he was an unlikely military leader, mild, amiable, good humored. he worked as a professor in the far northern state of maine, small bowdoin college. he was a man of deep christian faith and intellectual curiosity city. he was fluent in languages. he interspersed his lectures with allusions to the bible, to greece and rome, with quotations from dante and gerth, a no one would have predicted that this learned professor would have become this epic leader at gettysburg born only 50 years

after the founding this nation, he was imbued the incredible belief in the union a concept difficult, i think for us to fully appreciate it was not simply a political reality. it was a religious reality. it was a transcendent value. at gettysburg. he needed to draw upon every one of his qualities to lead his men. and lest i forget, using the clicker, we will start his opposition was led by william calvin oates, also a remarkable leader. the 15th alabama. both would go on to sterling careers after the civil war as. its men fell out of ammunition, he charged. he ordered the charge bayonet and charged down the hill and. that charge won the victory at little round top and changed his life forever. i came early to gettysburg this year because round top is

undergoing and incredible renovation. ten years ago, people began understand that it was overrun by people, busses, cars. it's now going through a $10 million renovation that will be to the public in 2024. and i wanted to meet ben hansford of the gettysburg to understand fully exactly what is taking place. they won't give you the exact date, but they will say spring 2024. yet the vagaries of american memory had rendered reputation lost until a remarkable triumph over the ken burns civil war documentary, the novel killer angels and jeff daniels portrayal chamberlain in the movie gettysburg brought his reputation back life. but if his reputation has been restored, i came to believe. as i started six years of

research writing, i would wake at 3:00 in the morning thinking chamberlain, that that his story has been almost like zoom lens focusing almost on gettysburg. and yet i believe as i learn to appreciate this person that his life after the civil war probably more than any other civil war veteran embraced more different and varied professor governor college president lecture writer and amazing life. and yet when i started the project i also learned very quickly this was going be a prickly project for if chamberlain had these legions of fans he had his critics both then and now did he fabricate did he exaggerate what he actually did a little roundup or what he did?

appomattox is in my biographies of, lincoln and grant several convictions has kind of impelled me as i went forward. first of all, i'm convinced that the stories of our american american biographies often skip much too quickly over what call the young person's life the formative period of a person's life. think of your own lives. when you were 16, 18, 20, 22, 24. or surely you're different person today. but weren't those years foundational for what you and the values that you still. so i wanted to devote more time to chamberlain's young life who was he what was the influence of bowdoin college upon him the second guiding principle of my biographies is i also believe that what i call the faith stories have been overlooked, passed over in modern biographies. for lincoln, it was a remarkable feast growing up with his parents in the second great

awakening of kentucky and southern, he did what many young people then and now do. he rejected he rejected the faith of his parents until life tumbled in the death of early in 1850, the death of willie in 1862 and then the crucible the civil war forced lincoln to rethink what he believed he could not return to the faith of his parents. but the ministry of phineas densmore gurley, the missing person in the story, minister of york avenue presbyterian church, provided lincoln a way forward show that this prize of everyone in his second inaugural address, he would mention 14 times quote the bible four times and invoke prayer three times. i was surprised in a way to find the faith story of ulysses grant. i learned that the methodist church far the national cathedral was ever in vision built. the first national church in washington d.c. methodism was

the protestant denomination, and they decided to dedicate that church four days before grant was, and it was inaugurate as president because he was the son of methodism and they wanted combine the dedication of the metropolitan memorial church and the inauguration of ulysses grant. well so it is with chamberlain he grows up in the small town of brewer, maine. thousand people, his parents are deeply religious. the church, the successor the puritans who came first to new england is dominant religion. and this the faith that he embraces. and yet what i then found remarkable was that even though he held this traditional faith, he and his adult life was more and more and more open other traditions of, faith that came into maine, unitary, an ism that came late, first from boston and then into maine. so who is this person? joshua lawrence chamberlain. how is he formed for me also,

biography the art of biography is a a puzzle of many pieces. i don't want to know conclusion before i start. i want to know what the puzzle is and ask those questions of the first question how to understand the proud beneficiaries of bowdoin college with classical curriculum with young professor willing to challenge that curriculum and willing to say there needs to be a new teaching method if we're going to reach young people today. how to reconcile bookworm college student with a risk taking soldier or at gettysburg how to appreciate the patriot who believed so fervently in the union. and yet his ability to say, i do accept the cause. i do not accept the confederacy, but i accept the courage of the confederate soldiers. and finally most interestingly, the last piece of the puzzle, caroline francis adams, the

woman that would become his wife. well, here's the photograph of little rnd top on july 3rd, 1862. i will try. keep up with the clicker. so he arrivest bowdoin college. this is a scene about 1850. when he arrives in 1848. here he is as a young student at bowdoin college college. when he arrives the day he meets francis, caroline adams at first parish, as they called it, she was the organist. he was the choir director. and pretty quickly he wasn't looking the choir. he was looking at the organist. and i wanted understand who she was. i did an event two weeks ago in princeton with my professor, tutor and, now friend jim mcpherson, and he said, you really written a biography of a marriage. you've written a biography of francis caroline adams as much

chamberlain well, how do you understand people? i'm always looking for a kind of an anecdote or a story that kind of captures the personality a person. and i think this captures the personality of fanny as a 17 year old high school student in knowing that mr. alfred pike did not really appreciate her sense of humor, he had given the students an assignment. he wanted them to compose a paper using verbs ending in f y. she. this is to certify notify exemplify, testify and signify my obedient disposition. and i hope that it will gratify satisfy, beautify and my teacher and pacify, modify and nullify his feelings of dissatisfaction. me do not exclaim oh, when reading this paper young fanny

was, and she. an interesting century story. she was born into a family in boston, the seventh child, her father was 50 years old, old enough to be her grandfather. and so parents decided seems odd to us that she needed be raised by a younger family. so he literally gave her at age four to his younger and his wife who was the pastor of first parish. and so she grew in brunswick. let's try to meet young chamberlain and who she is on a warm august day in maine, a young boy plods across field, leading to suddenly wagon pitches. it's stuck between trees. his father calls out clear the

wheel. how am i going to do it? the young exclaims. do it. that's how the father commands, the son, grips the lodged wheel, pushes with all of his young light, and the cart goes forward. chamberlain said this became an order for life. he never forgot his father's words. do it. that's that's the way he would live his life. he grew up in brewer, maine, attended the first parish of and there in his youthful christian nurture he in what was called catechesis as a model of christian education that had come down from the 16th century protestant reformation. he memorized the westminster shorter catechism 107 questions and answers question one what is the chief end of man?

answer one man's chief end is to glorify god and, enjoy him forever. now we're pretty, pretty reticent about memorization. our children and grandchildren say, i can look it up on google. i was so pleased last when a young man told me that his six year old son had memorized the gettysburg address. how absolutely wonderful. but this is not simply an act of mind. it's an act of the heart and when chamberlain goes off to face one of his greatest challenges in teaching, he says of himself fortified by the westminster confession, this was the belief would energize him to go forward. he joined the church at age and those days you join offering a narration of your faith. but he said i was not a sudden saint. you didn't have some dramatic conversion experience. but his faith would become extremely important to him. he arrives at bowdoin. it's a classical curriculum in

the 19th century, all the way up to maybe the last part of the century. people that the values taught in and rome were important values for citizens. in that day. i why? well, in 1849, harvard professor conway feinstein wrote we need to learn to become like greeks. i wondered what he meant. he said, here's the problem. we are living in a self indulging age. we are tolerating a constant reference to reference to self. my goodness, that sounds so contempt. when he arrived at bowdoin college, he came with a great disability he was a stammerer or a stutterer. and in an oral culture in the first year, he had to take a class in elocution. you can imagine what this must have been, where often the meaning the of education were recitation outward speaking.

fortunately, a professor helped him overcome and again one of the unlikeliest stories is in future years will become professor of rhetoric at bowdoin college. also during his there calvin stowe came professor of religion with his wife harriet beecher stowe. and through a remark will experience at first parish where she had a vision of what she should be doing, she began to write what became uncle tom's cabin. she invited students and to come into her home on saturday evenings as she would read chapter. chapter. it was first serialized. chamberlin was one of those students, along with fanny i don't want to overemphasize what that did, but i think it was the first exposure the chamber and had to the issue of slavery the issue brought to him by harriet beecher stowe. one of the things i'm looking for in writing a biography is also what has been missing in the past.

what do we yet to discover when chamberlain finished his four years at bowdoin college, he was faced a decision and a divide within. his family, his father very much wanted him to attend west in those days, you could attend west point after you went to college. his mother wanted him to be minister or missionary he decided to attend bangor theological seminary. seminaries were a new creature in. the 19th century previously, people went to harvard and yale, and then, like you would do in law, they would live with a minister who who taught them the of ministry. but bangor seminary, founded in 1814, was one of the first theological seminaries. but the problem was it went out of business in 2013. so fortunately me i was able to go to the maine historical society just after they had finally cataloged the papers. now these three years at bangor

seminary received no more than two sentences in all the previous biographies. why? because when he graduated. he did not become ordained minister. he became teacher, a professor at bowdoin college. but i know as one who have taught at theological that many people go to theology seminaries not to become ordained ministers, but to avail themselves of the benefits of theological education and did chamberlain here? he studied under enoch pond and one of those great aha at the university of maine at orono i found chamberlain's notes to enoch bond's. class 123 page is of notes to a single class which he had kept for the rest his life. aha. i think meaning something important happened there on that day that he graduated from bangor seminary. he was also offered the opportunity to a master of

oration address at bowdoin college. it so remarkable that the next day they offered him a teaching position and. so he began as a young professor. now you see his quite dress, his starched collar. it very much more a young professor at bowdoin college. but once he got there sometimes to the chagrin of his older professors who had known him as a student he wanted to challenge teaching method. he felt that the professors were treating the students as boys, not young men needed to be disciplined. he wanted to offer them what today i would call critical thinking. he wanted them to engender that they should think critically about texts that they were reading. and so he said in his own words, my goal was to in waken and enthusiasm in my pupils and keep my own style and my own mind fresh and whole.

when civil war broke out in april of 1861, he watched bowdoin students signed up all the union army to for the confederate. there were no electives in that time so bowdoin would have chamberlain would have taught every single student. i'm so indebted as any biographer is to me, it's john cross, the alumni secretary at bowdoin. his father was the alumni at bowdoin, and he has tracked down every single student who in the union army and within these students were captured several were killed and i wondered what chamberlain thought as watched this go forward. well, in july of 1862, lincoln, the proclamation that we now need 300,000 more soldiers. 13 days later, chamberlain signs up. he says, i fear this war so costly and blood treasure will not see until men of the north are willing to good positions and sacrifice for their dearest

personal interests. he was 33 years old. he was married. he had two young children. no one would criticize him for not signing up, but he did. he offered his his his service to. the governor of maine. the governor maine, as other governors were looking for people of eminent positions who could recruit a thousand men regiment. and so he offered chamberlain a colonel seat. but chamberlain no, i don't want to that position. this to says so much about him. i will take the subordinate position and learn and earn way to the command. he starts as lieutenant colonel even after governor offered him the colonel seat. well, ten months after gettysburg chamberlain is wounded severely at petersburg, a mini ball rips through his right hip, goes through his

body, severs bud vessels, scrapes his bladder and you three urethra and his bones before stopping at the edge of his left hip. two physicians come, tell him he will die. he is mortally wounded. the word goes up, grant, i don't think had ever met chamberlain, but who had heard about chamberlain promotes. chamberlain on the spot so that he would have the rank general at his death and then oops, what did i do here? here we go. at this moment writes to me a most remarkable letter to his wife. my darling wife, i am lying mortally wounded, the doctors ink, but my my mind and heart are at peace. jesus christ is my all sufficnt savior. i to him, god bless and comfort you, preouone. you been a precious wife to me.

to know and love you. makes le d death beautiful. cherish the darlings. d ve myov all the dear ones. do not grieve too much for me. we shall all soon meet. live for the children. wow. what a mother. fortunately is younger brother tom. also of the 20th maine finds two doctors from that regiment bring them to the hospital. they extract the bullet from chamberlain. and chamberlain lives. the doctors said that his wounds gave him a 10% chance of living, a contempt doctor would say a 10% chance of surviving wounds. well, months later, his involved again in a remarkable and sometimes controversial moment, he is asked to convert the surrender of lee's army at appomattox. now there is no written order about this, but again, my tutor

and friend jim mcpherson has told me that at the end of the war, not everything was written down. and so went to appomattox. and i'm so grateful to patrick schroeder, the park, his in there, who for 25 years has been studying the whole study of appomattox, collecting all the documents. this is not something that, as the critics, the chamberlain wrote about 30 years later. no, he wrote about the next day. but also there were newspaper reports coming in the next weeks. and so at this remarkable moment knowing that grant had offered this magnanimous piece to lee, i somehow believe that in chamberlain's mind and heart, what could he do to the gap of the from the confederacy opposed him was john b gordon another person with no military training who had risen to be right at the top of lee's. his men called the gallant.

he was then strong, and as he came forward suddenly, 3 to 4 yards separated the union soldiers and the confederate soldiers. what would grant what would chamberlain do? he believed he somehow had to give some to the confederate soldiers, not to the cause, but to the courage. and so as they passed by, he suddenly shifted, ordered arms to carry arms. the marching salute gordon overcome by this spoke about it 30 years later in a lecture in brooklyn, new york touched his sword, his toe wheeled, his black horse and asked his confederate soldiers to respond in what he called a token of respect, a token of respect offered by chamberlain. well, chamberlain finishes the civil war goes back to maine. i've asked myself the question,

what it mean to finish the civil war, finish world war two? for many people, i've come to believe that in their 20 or early thirties is the high point of their life. and for many of them, it's it's a struggle. what do you do after that? nothing will ever compare with that kind valor, that kind of comradeship the republicans see, him, the great civil war hero as a candidate to become the governor. maine, the governorship of maine. that time was a very unusual office. it was a one year term. well, i figured it out that. the average term of service was and a half years. chamberlain is elected one term, two terms. three terms, four terms. almost unprecedented. he serves as governor, not always a particularly success. he has to deal with a ferocious lobby, even though he himself is a person who very often very little. he's he's he's just so opposed to this temperance lobby trying to impose their morality on

everyone else in maine. he's not does not appreciate that at all. he's caught up in the death penalty. he says to the legislature, well if you don't want to have the death penalty, let's abolish it. if you do have the death penalty. let's carry it out. the practice had been that they'd have convicted person had death penalty and then it was never carried out. he does carry it out and that becomes quite controversial. this is his photograph of him as the governor of maine. then in 1871. yet another new vocation he's invited become the president of bowdoin college. he enters the college at what he believes is a time of great consequence and and and difficulty. so in his inaugural address this is what he says the times have shot past college left out of the current living sympathies. she stood while the world had flood and flushed with new life

swept. he told the audience college had touched bottom. he asked two questions how to rise again and how to begin. he answered with two options. the first, we might confine our efforts chiefly to holding our own strengthening the things that remain and feel our way by cautious and imperceptible degrees. the second, we might accept, the challenge of our times. should the college conquer? or it die? now alumni, then. and now we're. always interested in a new president and their change. but do they really want to support a president and his change? and so it's not an easy time. he resigns twice within 12 years of his presidency at bowdoin college. but each time that board the two boards, overseers and trustees refuse to accept his. but i think the most remarkable story is the i want to tell right now, as as chamberlain is

sitting quietly, his president's office at bowdoin college, maine politics are heating up. politics in maine had been republican, starting with the birth of the republican party in the middle of, the 1850s. but in 1878, a democrat is elected. and in 1879, the republicans very confident that they can. the office of governor and the house of representatives and the senate. and so the election is held september of 1879, actually on chamberlain's birthday. and the republicans win. they win the governorship. they win the. they win the senate in a huge, overwhelming vote. but then in something that sounds eerily familiar, something begins to happen. it's called the great countout. as the secretary of state receives the ballots, towns and counties, he counts out the ballots. in one town, five

representatives and one senator lost their seats. the results they did not sign in an open town meeting and another five representatives were eliminated because. the candidates listed their names with initials and not their full names. voters in republicans should skowhegan were disqualified because the ballot was printed in two columns instead of one. portland lost. 143 seats because all votes were thrown out and lewiston, sacco, barth and rockland. all the votes were dismissed because three aldermen, not aldermen, signed the ballot. the confederates the republicans are enraged. this is a republican newspaper, the conspiracy revolution and actually afoot only the final act. will they come into monstrous crime. and with men begin marching towards augusta, the state capital, with arms, the democratic governor brings arms from the bangobaor armory.

a paramilitary force is set up. the capital is boarded up. it looks like there's going to be an insurrection and the democratic governor turns to the only person in maine that can deal with this. he contacts the republican chamberlain, the offers this order. major general joshua earl chamberlain is authorized and directed to protect the public property and institutions of the state until my successor is duly qualified. that should be on july january seven. duty called chamberlain once more. he arrives in augusta on january five. he found the state boarded up with wood. he entered and established himself in a small office. his first orders was dismissed the paramilitary force. chamberlain had now become the military governor of the state in his unanticipated position, he decided to keep clear of all

civilian and political decisions. he didn't have the authority to which of the counted out lawmaker orders were duly elected. but in these last first days of january, that didn't stop the including the republicans from ratcheting up their fear against him. everything is confusion here. lawrence wrote on january seven. he tried to assure her, although i succeeded in getting a good many awkward things straightened out at the same. what vexes me the most that our own people, republicans not like me and do not want to straighten things out. this confusion is captured. frank leslie's illustrated newspaper or a letter. by two days later, he wrote fanny again. i do not dare leave here a moment. there would necessarily be a coup to to entering in violence and bloodshed. a republic congressman thomas

reed offered a portrait of chamberlain at this time. at last, we have white winged beneath assent and headed by a major general. the resplendent figures like one of the sons of the morning, which brought us this tranquil joy, the figure of joshua lawrence, to whom lee surrendered, he described chamberlain has, one who walks the white house, walks statehouse stairs, master the situation. although chamberlain understood his role to be a nonpartizan, he was being assailed by all sides. the threat was out that he would be kidnaped. the threat was out. they might kill him to be able to move forward, to elect their persons. the state house. on january 15, he reached family again. he confided to her of a bitter attack upon him in the republican bangor commercial newspaper, calling him a traitor to the republican cause. he even heard threats to her.

if you were afraid, he told her to contact thomas eaton, a political police officer, to have the police keep an eye on you. and on our house, on a particular frantic day. mayor nash of augusta summoned chamberlain. men rushing the capitol fully armed. he stepped to the rotunda with union battle flags around him and stood this angry mob men. you wish. kill me. killing is no new thing to me. i have offered myself to be killed many times when i no more deserved it than i do now. some of you think have been with me in those days. you understand what you want? do you. i am here to preserve the peace and honor of the state. until the right government is seated. whichever it may be, is not for me to say. but it is me to see that the laws the state are put into effect without fraud, without force, but with calm thought,

sincere purpose. i am here for that, and i shall do. if anybody wants to kill me for it, here i am. let him kill. and with that, he opened jacket and stood before these men, then a veteran in the crowd called out, by god general, the first man that lays that dares to lay hand on you. i'll kill him on the spot and crowd drifted away. by 1880, chamberlain had given hundreds of speeches, often thundering applause. people standing in appreciation. i think this is chamberlain's greatest speech. the response was silent. he'd never been forced to. give a speech like this before. for chamberlain, it was a near reprisal of little round top. in fact, he wrote to fanny next day. yesterday was, another little round top. this is the story unknown. on january 16, the state supreme

court met it, elected the republican as governor. it elected republicans in charge of the house. it elected republicans in charge of the senate. the 12 days of january were over. but letters began to pour in to chamberlain, l.t. the lawyer in winthrop, maine, penned, you have too long hidden yourself away from public gaze. let me assure you that the old time enthusiasm for you has not abated in the least. chamberlain was gratified to receive letters from members of the 20th maine. ellis pier. ellis speer i must write you add my word of congratulation and my testimony as to what good men here are saying. i when i saw and heard threats against you, the men who made them did not see you in hellfire of petersburg. dennis shapley, remembering his participation example of

remembering the surrender at automatics. general chamberlain we were never so proud of you as now, not even when you stood upon the boundary lines and received the surrender of vanquished foe. people were talking about chamberlain beyond maine. i particularly like the comment of helen killen, a leader of women's club movement in massachusetts, which we see it possible for a man to be a statesman, a soldier, a scholar a gentleman and a christian. the 12 days in august, i think, may be finest moment. little round two took place spontaneously within 90 minutes. now 12 days in a very calculated, he exercised leadership despite his wounds, we've often focused on amputations as the wounds of the civil war. recently, people have begun speaking about what they call the invisible wounds.

chamberlain three surgeries to try to connect his situation. he could never connected. i was in the chamberlain home last week in brunswick, maine. he couldn't even in his chair when he accepted people, he had to lie the couch. it was so absolutely for him. but here he is in a remarkable photograph. this is the early 20th century riding in a parade in portland, maine, in 1909. they centennial of abraham lincoln's birth took place. chamberlain was 80 years old. he'd really retired from, public speaking, but he was invited to give the major about abraham lincoln in, philadelphia in, the lincoln forum. may i share? a few words of his remarkable speech. he did not talk about what lincoln had done in his own understanding of what's important. he talked about lincoln's. he focused. the heroes of history are not

self seekers. they are saviors. they give their strength to the weak, the wrong, the imperiled suffering, sacrifice they take on themselves. so as to lincoln's character. courtly manners. culture of the schools. he did not bring, but molded and seasoned. strength, calm. courage and robust sense. he brought in a heart to humanize it all. he finished his inherent and potential greatness was the power of his reason and sense of right and magnanimity, which regarded the large and long interests of man more than the near and small interests of self. i conclude. with the remarkable commemoration of little round top in 1889. the men have returned to dedicate monuments to both little round top and big round

top, and at that time in the cotyourthouse evening, chamberlain offered these words yo one of you spoke to me about words yesterday and told me how emotionally it was for you to read those words in great deeds. something abides on, great fields, something stays, forms change, pass, bodies disappear. but spirits lingered. consecrate the ground for the vision place of souls and men and women from afar and generations that no was not. and that we know not heart drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered done for them. shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream dream. i've come away from chamberlain's compelling and complex story, believing it's much more than a 19th century story, much than a civil war

story. at its heart, it poses a question with many possible. what makes a hero? what background? what behavior? what beliefs? what circumstances? what records? what outcomes? at the end of my presentation, i turn that over to you. thank you. we've we've got about ten or 12 minutes for questions. so please come to the microphones so that the

audience, c-span, can hear your questions. as you line up. ron, we'll call on you. yes. well, first of all, thank you for an excellent presentation that dr. john and vice president of lincoln group dc see, because here in gettysburg you mention chamberlain. everyone thinks jeff daniels. he's he's chamberlain here in gettysburg. and one question would be whether you think of his of his portrayal as a winsome, as most people, as my civil war medicine interest has had me studying great detail. what happened to chamberlain and which which you alluded to. and so another question in my is what does it say about the character of this man that with a tremendous pain he was living with it for the rest of his life? he was to accomplish what you had outlined here.

thank you for the question. how could he accomplished much with such tremendous pain? but i found remarkable was he never talked about it. so one of his old comrade came to him one day and said, i know that you were in such pain. he was not someone who is to complain about this. this was just part of who he was and he suffered through it. but modern studies, both physicians and wonderful historian, written about invisible wounds, talk about what this must have to him. a doctor when he was age 50, said, you're not going to live very long. he lived until 2014. he participated the planning for the great tour to 1914 1914. oh oh, he participated. the planning for the 1913 50th reunion of gettysburg. but he was too ill to attend. and we actually did a photo reenactment of that reunion, and we had ted chamberlain there

portraying polk. joshua, thank you very much. and yes, i think for most of us, the we have of chamberlain comes from the movie. i is there anything in all your research that that showed anything in the movie was particularly accurate that or is there anything turned up that that should be something in the movie that may have been misleading. well, movies take license and yet i think i think jeff daniels did good job. i'm told the story that when people go into the village of gettysburg and they into a store, here's a photograph of chamberlain, a photograph of jeff daniels. they say, i'll take jeff daniels. i run aaron carlson, mass. the president and ceo of lincoln presidential foundation. in your book, you quoted cities saying that in their but essentially with people recollections their taking in

there the reflecting trauma and their experiences. can you tell us a little bit more about why you chose that, quote, from two cities and how it reflects chambal since public speaking work throughout most of his career. thank you, aaron. yes, the quote from two cities. i thought in some ways the incredible sufferer. drew gilpin faust has written about the suffering of these soldiers. and yet the irony or the paradox, the chamber did not wallow. that did not speak about that did not allow that to slow him down and all the things that he did. so i think the series struck a timely theme there of the suffering of those who participated in war. thank you. yes, hi, ron. christopher corder, abraham lincoln presidential library museum. thank you for those wonderful talk. i it's hard to summarize briefly, would you address the over what chamberlain or may not have done here on july second 1863 and where you ultimately

landed on that? yes. yes. the controversy about little round out of the various accounts. did embellish this. he wrote about a little round top at least six times and. so over the course of 40 or 50 years, the story changes. did that make the story less truthful? other people extended. what. i. know about that. same day. in my book i talk about what i call the second civil war. this was a war fought not with swords or muskets, but with words as. after a few years of kind of we,

the saviors of the union men, began to disagree with each other and was very aware in 1889 when they came for the commemoration that men of the 20th may disagreed with each who did what, when, where. and i thought he made a remarkable to them at that ceremony. he their little round top he said you are all right you are all right? which i thought was not just some pollyanna position. it was the idea that obviously over 50 years or 30 years, the memory of what took place is never going to be the same. so i find his account basically accurate. it's attributed other people, but i understand criticism and the questioning. yeah. thank you. yes. hi, jeff. howie from. back to jeff daniels a second. in order to get his the part for that, he had to memorize a monologue. okay. so my question is, did that monologue actually happen when he spoke to those deserters?

and secondly was chamberlain ever approached to run for president. two questions was the monologue that jeff used exactly the same parable not not for when he what he accepted was the deserters. what i meant by that was men had signed up for they thought was a two year term of conscription and suddenly some of them discovered it was a three year term of subscription and they were very, very angry about this. so they could have been shot for participating in as battle. but they were brought to chamberlain and chamberlain understood this and said, men, if if you will become part of what we are doing will treat you fairly and justly. no, he never was a candidate for president. it's an interesting question whether he might have been a president for the united states senate. he didn't push himself. he never occupied office beyond state of maine. yeah. this will be the last question. yes, yes, yes.

yes, sir. killing stewart often, carolina. yes. yesterday yes, sir. i'm a public school teacher, so i was just wondering, what lessons do you think chamberlain for teachers and for our. the education chamberlain received was an education character and think that's what's missing today. the classical education and the christian values. the professors who taught the classical education. these are the values. so when you get into a spontaneous situation like little round top, these values, i believe have to be deeply embedded within you so that you then will react, respond to the situation. and i think we shy away perhaps of teaching the character of the persons that we want to study in american history. thank you very much for. thank you.