Page 29 - 21st Century Defense 100th Anniversary WW1

Secretary of War Stanton was moved by the story of the
remaining six commandos. He stepped into an adjoining
room and returned with a piece of paper in his hand
addressing the six brave men before him. “Congress has
by recent law ordered medals to be prepared on this
model. Your party shall have the first; they will be the
first that have been given to private soldiers in this war.”
Then the Secretary stepped before the youngest of the
group, Private Jacob Parrott and he was presented the
first Medal of Honor ever awarded. When he finished
with the remaining five, Secretary Stanton walked them
to the White House to meet President Lincoln; setting
the stage for a tradition that would be repeated some This is the Fidelity medal and is the
half century later. The following September, nine more oldest military award in American
of the raiders were presented Medals of Honor for their military history. This was given out
participation in the raid. 4 to the men who participated in the
capture of the British Spy Major
John Andre. The men who received
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG this medal were Private John
Paulding, Private David Williams,
One of the veritable icons of Civil War legend was and Private Isaac Van Wart. Photo
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. He was born in 1828 courtesy of MinuteManWord.
tumblr.com.
in Brewer, Maine. Chamberlin was the eldest of five
children born to Joshua and Sarah Brastow
Chamberlain. His father named him after Captain James
Lawrence, famous for his quote “don’t give up the ship.”
Young Joshua graduated from Bowdoin College in 1852
where he was a student of Calvin Stowe (husband of
Harriet Beecher Stowe). In 1855 after Chamberlain
attended Bangor Theological Seminary, he returned
to Bowdoin with new wife Fannie, where he became a
professor of languages and rhetoric.
With the outbreak of war, Chamberlain sought to
do his part and offered his services to the Governor of
Maine. He was subsequently appointed a Lieutenant
Colonel of the newly raised 20th Maine regiment.
Chamberlain used his position as second-in-command
under the tutelage of his commander, West point
graduate Colonel Adelbert Ames. Chamberlain saw his
first action in one of the doomed assaults on Marye’s
Heights at Fredericksburg but missed the Battle of
Chancellorsville due to an outbreak of smallpox. Losses
sustained at Chancellorsville elevated Colonel Ames to
brigade commander leaving Chamberlain to command
the regiment in the next major engagement of the war,
the Battle of Gettysburg.
On July 2, 1863, Chamberlain was situated on the
extreme left of the Union line at Little Round Top. Portraits of 15 African American
Confederate General John B. Hood attacked the Union soldiers and sailors who received
flank. After repulsing repeated assaults, exhausted and Medals of Honor for service in
out of ammunition, Colonel Chamberlain executed a the American Civil War, American
Indian Wars, and Spanish American
bayonet charge. In one of the most heroic actions of the War. Photo from the Du Bois Wil-
Civil War, Chamberlain’s regiment dislodged the liam Edward Burghardt Collections,
Confederates securing General Meade’s embattled left 1868-1963, Library of Congress.

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