Chamberlain FundRazer campaign for a Chamberlain highway marker at Petersburg.

suzenatale

Sergeant Major
Joined
May 25, 2013
Same idea as kickstarter, Dean Clegg has been leading up this campaign. He writes,
"The Joshua L. Chamberlain Highway Marker Fund is being created to raise funds for an approved cast-aluminum highway marker to be purchased and installed at the location where in the following passage, events of June 18, 1864 took place and the near fatal bullet wound Chamberlain received he endured for the next 50 years of his incredible life.​

"Joshua L. Chamberlain—Promoted “on the spot”
In this vicinity on 18 June 1864 Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain received a near-fatal wound while leading a Union brigade in a charge against Confederate works defending Petersburg. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant promoted him to Brig. Gen. of Vols. “on the spot” for “gallant conduct.” Chamberlain returned to duty in November and was wounded again in March 1865. On 12 April at Appomattox he commanded the ceremony at which the Army of Northern Virginia formally surrendered its arms. He was governor of Maine from 1867 to 1871 and received the Medal of Honor in 1893."​

Cost for the marker is $1,630.00. It has been approved by the Virginia State Board of Historic Resources."​

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/6nBDa/ab/93YSU2

Information can also be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Josh...Marker-Fund/724849824244407?ref_type=bookmark
 
According to their own Facebook page they want to place the marker at the intersection of E. South Blvd and Warren St.... Granted the spot may hold significance to the historical event... but today the spot is back in the middle of a residential neighborhood.... Not on a main route... not where one would normally go venturing through looking for historical fodder...... It looks as it would have to be placed by the curb in some ones front yard... There could be no pull-off, or shoulder with it... one would have to stop in the street in order read it....
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According to their own Facebook page they want to place the marker at the intersection of E. South Blvd and Warren St.... Granted the spot may hold significance to the historical event... but today the spot is back in the middle of a residential neighborhood.... Not on a main route... not where one would normally go venturing through looking for historical fodder...... It looks as it would have to be placed by the curb in some ones front yard... There could be no pull-off, or shoulder with it... one would have to stop in the street in order read it....
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Ah, now I see why the Civil War Trust left the 5th Corps off the map, the situation was just too hugely depressing and involved more than one highway.
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http://www.nps.gov/pete/index.htm

Here's the park map. Fort Sedgwick is what would later be called Fort Hell and Fort Mahone would be called Fort Damnation. Chamberlain was charging from Fort Sedgwick where he placed his guns to Fort Mahone. I'm guessing the proposed marker would be by the "w" in Gowen. Not much is left of Fort Mahone either, aside from the Pennsylvania Monument near there.

Google Map
 
I wonder if they would put the marker there on S Crater Rd and put "near here....."
I'm not sure if there is any kind of Fort Sedgwick marker, if not add one and put it near there. Would still be in a neighborhood though.

PS I'm under the impression the location has already been approved. It's not too far off the NPS tour route.
 
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I'm not sure how I feel about the title being promoted on the spot, even though there are italics around "on the spot," being in the title people might imagine Grant ventured out there to promote him. Title should be on this spot JLC receives a near fatal wound.
And rather than mentioning his later actions I would mention more about the works he was charging, that he was part of the 5th corps under Warren, stuff like that. But I think it has already been approved as is.
 
"BRUNSWICK, Maine — Joshua Chamberlain surveyed the scene at Petersburg, Virginia, where he had been ordered to help launch one of the last key battles of the Civil War, and knew the siege could kill him.

His concerns would turn out to be justified. Now, 150 years to the month after the gunshot wound that would eventually cause Chamberlain’s death, a Maine native wants to post a marker in Petersburg commemorating the site.

“He saw a high bluff to the west. He saw bayonets gleaming in the light — 3,000 of them in front of him,” described Dean Clegg, a guide at the Chamberlain House Museum in Brunswick. “There were cannons lined up to the left and to the right. It was so serious — so suicidal — that a lieutenant wrote that it was enough to ‘freeze your blood.’”

Chamberlain nonetheless led the First Brigade, First Division, V Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac in a charge through the open ground surrounded on all sides by Confederate firepower...."

https://bangordailynews.com/slidesh...ginia-site-where-joshua-chamberlain-was-shot/


"Now, Clegg said he’s simply awaiting word from the Virginia Department of Transportation to say where, exactly, the agency will allow the marker to be planted."
Guess it is still up in the air, suggest away.
 
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"
“He saw a high bluff to the west. He saw bayonets gleaming in the light — 3,000 of them in front of him,” . “There were cannons lined up to the left and to the right. It was so serious — so suicidal — that a lieutenant wrote that it was enough to ‘freeze your blood.’” Chamberlain nonetheless led the First Brigade, First Division, V Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac in a charge through the open ground surrounded on all sides by Confederate firepower...."

Always interesting that after the fact accounts of a given action tend to get embellished as they do... if one fails to obtain an objective the causes and reasoning tends to lean toward claims of opposing force being superior numbers, and an formidable foe impossible by any human standards to dislodge or defeat.... The bravery displayed by taking on such an overwhelming force as evidence of their respective cause and determination...

However.. the opposing force they attacked in this case.... was the hodge-podge assorted collection that comprised Beauregard's command of hastily assembled troops from the immediate region... two brigades of troops just recently arrived in Virginia from the deep south.... and assorted local home guards and local militia units.... In most respects the Battle of Petersburg that these early series of engagements to capture Petersburg.... was commonly known as "The Battle of Boys and Old Men"... which many of the defenders at that time were.... Many armed with obsolete or secondary arms... even flintlocks and shotguns..... Most of the reinforcement's coming from the Army of Northern Virginia either weren't there yet,, or just starting to arrive.... Hardly presenting the actual image of gleaming bayonets.. massed artillery and massed confederate firepower....

Spats amongst the Federal commanders, and poorly and uncoordinated attacks, lead more to their failure from completely taking their prize objective, than the motley array of defenders were.... Also the issue that if they effectively had explored and scouted the enemy lines slightly beyond their left flank.... a common practiced tactic to see where exactly your enemy lines are and assess their possible strength..... to evaluate existing threats... to determine possible weak spots worthy to assault ... or to guard/block your own flank..... they would have found the existing confederate defensive lines there were nearly unmanned and near completely undefended.... An opportunity existed to outflank, roll up the confederate right flank... and would have been a near clear unguarded route directly into the heart of Petersburg.....which could have also resulted in enveloping the small defending force.... capturing all before Lee could arrive in any sufficient force...
 
Always interesting that after the fact accounts of a given action tend to get embellished as they do... if one fails to obtain an objective the causes and reasoning tends to lean toward claims of opposing force being superior numbers, and an formidable foe impossible by any human standards to dislodge or defeat.... The bravery displayed by taking on such an overwhelming force as evidence of their respective cause and determination...

However.. the opposing force they attacked in this case.... was the hodge-podge assorted collection that comprised Beauregard's command of hastily assembled troops from the immediate region... two brigades of troops just recently arrived in Virginia from the deep south.... and assorted local home guards and local militia units.... In most respects the Battle of Petersburg that these early series of engagements to capture Petersburg.... was commonly known as "The Battle of Boys and Old Men"... which many of the defenders at that time were.... Many armed with obsolete or secondary arms... even flintlocks and shotguns..... Most of the reinforcement's coming from the Army of Northern Virginia either weren't there yet,, or just starting to arrive.... Hardly presenting the actual image of gleaming bayonets.. massed artillery and massed confederate firepower....

Spats amongst the Federal commanders, and poorly and uncoordinated attacks, lead more to their failure from completely taking their prize objective, than the motley array of defenders were.... Also the issue that if they effectively had explored and scouted the enemy lines slightly beyond their left flank.... a common practiced tactic to see where exactly your enemy lines are and assess their possible strength..... to evaluate existing threats... to determine possible weak spots worthy to assault ... or to guard/block your own flank..... they would have found the existing confederate defensive lines there were nearly unmanned and near completely undefended.... An opportunity existed to outflank, roll up the confederate right flank... and would have been a near clear unguarded route directly into the heart of Petersburg.....which could have also resulted in enveloping the small defending force.... capturing all before Lee could arrive in any sufficient force...
"June 18, George Meade ordered his army to attack, but he couldn’t get his subordinates to attack in unison. Out of frustration, Meade told his corps commanders to attack on their own initiative, with predictable results, thousands more killed or wounded. George Meade was frustrated. He wrote that, “Had these assaults been made on the 5th and 6th of May, we should have succeeded with half the loss we met.” The soldiers were simply not up to attacking entrenchments anymore. On June 18, four entire brigades of the II Corps refused to attack. Charles Wainwright, in his diary, wrote of June 18, “The attack this afternoon was a fiasco of the worst kind; I trust it will be the last attempt at this most absurd way of attacking entrenchments by a general advance. It has been tried so often now and with such fearful losses that even the stupidest private now knows that it cannot succeed, … and the natural consequence follows. The men will simply not try it. The very sight of a bank of fresh earth now brings them to a dead halt.” By June 18, seeing the casualties and the status of his men in demoralization, US Grant gave up any more hope of a frontal assault at Petersburg and decided to dig in himself. As Grant wrote, “I will make no more assaults on that portion of the line, but will give the men a rest, and then look to extensions toward our left, with a view to destroying Lee’s communications on the south and confining him to a close siege.” [Actually, Grant didn't write this. According to Horace Porter, this is what Grant verbally told Porter the evening of the 18th.]"
http://studycivilwar.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/the-saddest-affair-of-the-war/
And don't forget what happened to the First Maine Heavy Artillery that day.
http://www.civilwar.org/video/charge-of-the-1st-maine-heavy.html
 
25% paid for, woo hoo. Remember years from now you can point to it and say, I paid for that.
 
We got the 600, now we just need the 1000. You guys can do it! Every little bit helps!
If we get it up @BillO will have to promise to send us a photo of himself crying next to the sign. :D
 
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