Chamberlain All Glory is Fleeting

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Joshua Chamberlain was destitute when in 1899 he accepted the position of Collector of Customs for the Port of Portland. He died there on February 24, 1914 in a house on Ocean Avenue he had been able to purchase in 1909. (1) Two days after his death, a chimney fire was extinguished at the house as his body lay in his home awaiting burial. (2) In Brunswick, Portland, and some other towns in Maine, his death and funeral were treated as a major news event, but by 1914 the rest of the country had moved on. A search for his name the week of his death in the newspapers on the Library of Congress website shows seventeen results. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?dateFilterType=range&date1=02/25/1914&date2=03/03/1914&language=eng&ortext=&andtext=&phrasetext=&proxtext=Joshua+Chamberlain+&proxdistance=5&rows=20&searchType=advanced

"Although a military funeral and attended by the governor of the state, representatives of Governor Walsh of Massachusetts, and a great body of Maine's most distinguished citizens, the services for General Chamberlain were almost severe in their simplicity." The Barre Daily Times, Barre, VT Feb. 28, 1914 (3)

On page 8 of 8 in the Odanah Star, Odanah, Ashland County, WI, Feb. 27, 1914, Chamberlain's death gets one paragraph and he is referred to as having "distinguished himself in the Civil War and had been surveyor of customs in Portland" (4) as if those two things could be on equal footing. The Birmingham Age-Herald, Birmingham, AL, Feb. 25, 1914 features a slightly shorter one paragraph notice with similar wording.

Safe to say, there were other events of the day…..women wanted to vote, their hemlines were rising, a war in Europe, an 8 hour workday announced by Ford Motor Company, the outrageous behavior of the rich and famous and the destitute…..all these things grabbed the headlines and attention of a new generation for which the war only existed in the history books.

Sources:
(1) https://portlandhousestories.com/2020/03/01/glimpses-499-ocean-avenue/
(2) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014248/1914-02-27/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=02/25/1914&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=eng&sequence=0&words=Chamberlain+Joshua&proxdistance=5&date2=03/03/1914&ortext=&proxtext=Joshua+Chamberlain+&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1
(3) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91066782/1914-02-28/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=02/25/1914&index=6&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=eng&sequence=0&words=Chamberlain+Joshua&proxdistance=5&date2=03/03/1914&ortext=&proxtext=Joshua+Chamberlain+&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1
(4) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024927/1914-02-27/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=02/25/1914&index=3&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=eng&sequence=0&words=Chamberlain+Joshua&proxdistance=5&date2=03/03/1914&ortext=&proxtext=Joshua+Chamberlain+&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1

 

[7thWisconsin]

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

(Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)

 

[Dead Parrott]

"Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink."