Joshua L. Chamberlain --- Maine Writer Recalls Interview With "Hero of Little Round Top"
The author of this article recalls an interview with Chamberlain that took place almost 50 years before 1928, the date of the article.
Because of this, errors might be expected and excusable.
The author relates a strange account of Gettysburg, remembering of Chamberlain,
"He was fearfully wounded, lapsed into unconsciousness and as he did so grasped firm hold
of a little bush beside which he had sunk. Years afterward, when Gettysburg had become a memory, he still retained the impression of that moment
and he said, 'I felt that if I let go of that little bush, I should die, I thought that with the release of that, my soul would leave my body.'"
It is unclear if the author is perhaps remembering a story told to him by someone else, or if it was in fact told by Chamberlain but of the
Battle of Petersburg or possibly the Malarial Fever Chamberlain suffered from after Gettysburg.
The author does relate some interesting antidotes, presumably true, of Chamberlain's opinions of Grant running for a third term.
"'I think,' replied he, with a vigor decisive and unexpected, 'that people are making a great mistake, and the General as well. He
never ought to have accepted the Presidency in the first place. He should have been as wise as was Sherman who refused it again and again."
This author also wrote articles on other Maine men including
James G. Blaine
and
O. O. Howard.