Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Museum
Longtime home of Brevet Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, hero of the battle of Little Round Top, which took place at Gettysburg.
Site Details
Pin location is approximate.
226 Maine St
Brunswick, ME 04011
Family Friendly?
Yes
Visitors Per Year
2,000-3,000
The Chamberlain homestead has been carefully renovated and restored based on fragments of paint and wallpaper discovered in the walls and ceilings. The museum is open from Memorial Day to mid-October and offers four guided tours per day, lasting an hour and a half, during the season. It is also available for private tours in the offseason.
- Tours go through Chamberlain’s longtime Brunswick residence, including his library, which contains Civil War artifacts, and his adjoining office containing furnishings from his time as Governor of Maine as well as his Medal of Honor, saddle, boots, and the bullet that pierced his body during the Battle of Petersburg. Copies of paintings of the most famous battles in which he fought as well as a copy of a painting of Lee’s surrender are hung in his office where he once placed them.
- Guides are extremely knowledgeable about Chamberlain, his upbringing and education, his studies at Bowdoin College, his service with the Twentieth Maine, and his subsequent career as President of Bowdoin College and Governor of Maine. They explain in clear and precise terms why Chamberlain was not selected by the Maine legislature to serve in the U.S. Senate (the more radical Republicans did not approve of the honor he showed to Lee during his surrender at Appomattox).
- Visitors may also walk to the nearby Pejepscot History Center (additional charge), stroll through Bowdoin College and visit Chamberlain’s statue, see First Parish Church, where he was a member, and visit his nearby gravesite at Pine Grove Cemetery.
The tour guides are remarkably well-informed about Chamberlain, local history, and Chamberlain’s historical significance.
There is no ideological bias at the site. Chamberlain is treated as the hero he is. The same is true of the website, which was written by a fine local historian, Charles Calhoun. The Pejepscot History Center does include a land acknowledgement.
Tour groups often include visitors of all ages, and the deeply knowledgeable guides are able to adjust their talks to suit their audience. (This evaluator’s most recent visit to the museum was as a class mother for a 4th grade field trip, where the presentation was tailored for elementary school children.)
The giftshop/bookstore offers books that appeal to all age groups. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, along with The Poems of Longfellow, seem geared to a wide variety of readers, as do the wide selection of Civil War books. The tour covers two floors, and the staircases are on the steep side (but very beautiful). For visitors with limited mobility and families with very young children in strollers, this might be difficult.
A native of Brewer, Maine, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain entered Bowdoin College in 1848. After graduating in 1852, he attended Bangor Theological Seminary for three years and returned to Bowdoin to teach rhetoric and persuasive writing. He heard Harriet Beecher Stowe, wife of Bowdoin Professor, Calvin Stowe, read chapters from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When the Civil War broke out, Chamberlain volunteered his services and was made Lt. Col. of the Twentieth Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
Chamberlain commanded the regiment at Little Round Top on the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. After his troops exhausted their supply of ammunition, he ordered them to fix bayonets and charge the enemy, an unexpected maneuver that caught advancing Confederate soldiers off guard and led to a Union victory at Little Round Top. At the end of the war, he was the commanding officer who accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s forces at Appomattox on April 12, 1865. In an effort to lay the foundation for reconciliation, he ordered his troops to salute the defeated forces as they marched by, an action that angered the more radical Republicans, who wanted to see the South punished.
Chamberlain left military service with the rank of Brevet Major General. He returned to Maine, where he served as President of Bowdoin College and later as governor of the state. Remembering his conciliatory actions at Appomattox, Republicans in the Maine legislature refused to support him for U.S. Senator. Chamberlain lived out his days in Maine and died in 1914.
Owned By: Pejepscot History Center
Operated By: Pejepscot History Center
Government Funded: No
Did you know?
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was not that well known until his depiction in Ken Burns’ Civil War series and Michael Shaara’s book, The Killer Angels, which served as the source for the movie, Gettysburg.
Recommended Reading
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
- In the Hands of Providence by Alice R. Turlock
- The Twentieth Maine by John R. Pullen
Reviewed By
Jean Yarbrough
Gary M. Pendy Sr. Professor of Social Sciences at Bowdoin College
The opinions expressed above are those of the Reviewer who is providing a good-faith historical assessment to educate the public. Reasonable opinions can vary, and the Reviewer’s opinion is not necessarily the opinion of The Heritage Foundation or its affiliates.