School Board Leadership - A Lesson From General Joshua Chamberlin

Dr. Phil Price

School Board Leadership – A Lesson from General Joshua Chamberlain

Session presenter Dr. Phil Price set the scene for General Joshua Chamberlain’s leadership at Gettysburg in the July 2, 1863 Battle of the Little Round Top by saying, “The key was not because of the battle but something that happened three days earlier.” That something was June 30, when 120 Union deserters joined Chamberlain’s diminished regiment and were given the choice to fight, not for land, but to set other men free.

General Chamberlain had no skill or training as a soldier, much less as a leader.  He spent three years at a theological seminary and was a professor at Bowdoin College when the Civil War broke out. His leadership at Gettysburg in the Battle of the Little Round Top earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor and is studied by both historians and soldiers.

How can General Chamberlain’s leadership lesson be described? First, he was ordered to take along 120 deserters to the next battle. The 120 men had been marched all night and had not eaten for two days. General Chamberlain told them he would not shoot any man who did not want this fight, saw to it the deserters’ leg irons were removed and, under a shaded tree, they were fed. He questioned their situation, learning most did not know how to read or write. The prisoners thought they had signed up for two years along with the other Maine men, but unknown to them, their enlistment was for three years. When they tried to leave with their comrades, they were considered deserters.

General Chamberlain’s speech to the Maine deserters spoke of judging men by what they do, not by what a father did. He stressed that each deserter could be something. “It’s the idea that we all have value, you, and me, we’re worth something more than the dirt. I never saw dirt I’d die for, but I’m not asking you to come join us and fight for dirt. What we’re all fighting for, in the end, is each other.” General Chamberlain’s success came in how he treated his men. He listened and brought people in. As a result, 116 of the 120 deserters joined Chamberlain. Under his leadership, the battle considered the turning point in the Civil War, was won.

ASPRA Reporter Mary Cummings, Educational Communications Consultant