Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Learning How to Lead

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I know how to learn.

Those were the exact words that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain used in his solicitation to form a regiment of Maine volunteers to serve the cause of the Union in 1862. Abraham Lincoln had just issued a call for 300,000 more troops, and Chamberlain, just getting himself established as a professor at Bowdoin College, responded.

And learn he did. According to a new biography, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White, Chamberlain was to learn much about what it takes to lead men into battle. His ability to lead came from his talent for bringing people together for a common purpose, something he had been doing as a teacher and prospective pastor.

His learning climaxed on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of the Little Round Top at Gettysburg. The 20th Maine Chamberlain's regiment had the high ground and fought regiments from Alabama for hours. When they ran out of ammunition, Chamberlain gave the call to fix bayonets and charge down the hill. This effort so terrified the rebels that they turned tail and ran. The 20th Maine's action on that day may have saved the Union. Had General Robert E. Lee's forces been victorious at Gettysburg, they would have had an easy road to Washington, D.C., and its possible capture.

Chamberlain served an additional two years, becoming gravely wounded in 1864, causing him pain for the rest of his life. He returned to Maine, served as its governor, and returned to Bowdoin to become its president. While he was active in planning the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg in 1913, his final illness prevented him from attending. He died the following year.

Lifetime of learning

Learning was central to Chamberlain's life. And from him, we can take notes of how we can learn. My late father, a family physician, used to tell me that you go to college to learn how to learn. Chamberlain is the exemplar of Dad’s mantra. Here’s how.

Step back. Chamberlain was offered the colonelcy of the regiment, but he deferred to a former Adelbert Ames, an 1861 graduate of West Point who had been wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run. Chamberlain stuck close to Ames, a young man ten years his junior seeking to learn as much as possible.

Study hard. As White notes in his biography, Chamberlain hit the books hard both to qualify for entry into Bowdoin and later to catch up to his classmates after losing a year to illness. He continued his studies, writing to his wife Fanny, “I study, I tell you, every military work I can find.”

Set aside what you think you know. While Chamberlain had studied military strategy and tactics, he had not worn the uniform. Before the 20th Maine got its first taste of battle, Chamberlain observed combat maneuvers as his troops were held in reserve. Unlike Ames, a regular Army officer, he also understood that his was an army of volunteers and treated them with respect for their service.

Learn as you lead. Chamberlain had led a quiet life before the Civil War, even intending to become a minister or missionary after graduating from Bangor Theological Seminary. He opted for marriage and academics, but the war gave him a different education – raw, brutal, and violent. It enabled him to continue to lead, eventually becoming a general and serving as such when the Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. 

“Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life,” wrote Warren Bennis, like Chamberlain, a combat veteran at the Battle of the Bugle and later a professor and university president.

Leaders must learn to see the world as it is, not simply what they imagine it to be. Their perceptions become real when they are tested by adversity and challenged to respond to the call to serve.

First posted on Forbes.com 7.02.2024

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