USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I > Part 31
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(V) Nathaniel (2), son of Nathaniel (1) Butler, married Tabitha Joy. He had a daugh- ter Tabitha, who married Sheldon Hobbs Beal. (See Beal family herewith.)
William, Count Tank- CHAMBERLAIN erville, of Tankerville Castle in Normandy, who came to England with William the Con- queror, was the progenitor of the Chamberlain family in England. He himself returned to Normandy, but his descendants remained in England on the land granted to them.
(II) John De Tankerville, son of the for- mer earl, was lord chamberlain to King Henry I, and assumed his title as a surname. (III) Richard, son of John, was also chamberlain to King Stephen, and the surname Chamber- lain has since his day been that of his family. (IV) William Chamberlain was son of Rich- ard (3). (V) Robert Chamberlain was son of William (4). (VI) Sir Richard Chamber- lain was son of Robert (5). (VII) Sir Rob- ert Chamberlain was son of Richard (6). The line continues : Sir Richard (VIII), John (IX), Thomas (X), John (XI), William Chamberlain (XII). The American family of which William Chamberlain was the immi- grant ancestor, doubtless belongs to this fam- ily, though the line of ancestry is not traced. The Chamberlain coat-of-arms: Gules, an escutcheon argent between eight mullers in orle, or. Quartering: Gules a chevron be- tween three escallops or. Motto: Virtuti nihil invium. Seat: Dunstew in Oxfordshire, England.
(I) William Chamberlain, immigrant an- cestor of General Robert Horace Chamber- lain, of Worcester, was born in England about 1620. His brother Thomas was one of the three original purchasers of the Dudley farm at Billerica, but he settled at Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Another brother, Edmund, settled first in Woburn, then removed to Chelmsford before 1656, when he sold land at Billerica. Savage said that Edmund finally settled in Woodstock.
William Chamberlain was admitted an in- habitant of Woburn, January 6, 1648, and per- mitted to buy land there. He removed to Billerica in 1654, about the time his brothers left that town, and spent the remainder of his life there. He died May 31, 1706, aged eighty-six years. His house in Shawshin (Billerica) was on the farm, probably near the Woburn road, in the southwest part of the village. His name first appears on the records October, 1654, on a petition to enlarge the
bounds of the town and to change the name to Billerica ( Billerikey in original paper). A little later, when the committee on militia or- dered Sergeant Hills's house to be a garrison, William Chamberlain's family was one of those assigned to it. He married Rebecca -, who died September 26, 1692, in the prison at Cambridge, where she was held on the preposterous charge of witchcraft. Chil- dren : Timothy, born at Concord, Massachu- setts, August' 13, 1649-50; Isaac, born at Con- cord, October 1, 1650, died July 20, 1681 ; John, died March 3, 1652; Sarah, born at Bil- lerica, May 20, 1655-56, married John Shedd ; Jacob, born January 18, 1657-58, see forward ; and these also at Billerica: Thomas, born February 20, 1659; Edmund, July 15, 1660, married Mary Abbott; Rebecca, February 25, 1662, married Thomas Stearns; Abraham, January 6, 1664; Ann, March 3, 1665-66; Clement, May 30, 1669; Daniel, September 27, 1671 ; Isaac, January 20, 1681.
(II) Jacob, son of William Chamberlain, was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, Janu- ary 18, 1657-58. He married Experience Children: 1. Jacob, born at New- ton, Massachusetts, 1691 ; died 1771. 2. John, born 1695, at Charlestown, Massachusetts ; died 1783. 3. William, born 1697, at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts; mentioned below. 4. Jason, born at Holliston, Massachusetts, 1701 ; died 1770. 5. Ebenezer, born at West- borough, Massachusetts, 1704; ancestor of Westborough and Worcester families, as was also Jacob, his brother.
(III) William (2), son of Jacob Chamber- lain, was born in 1697, at Cambridge; died at Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1753. He married, in 1719, Mary Tibbetts. They lived at Rochester and Alton, New Hampshire. Children, all but the two youngest born at Rochester, and they at Alton: 1. Mary, 1720. 2. Rebecca, 1722; died 1815. 3. William, 1725; died at Lebanon, Maine, 1815. 4. Ex- perience, 1727. 5. Ebenezer, 1729; mentioned below. 6. Dorothy, died 1825. 7. Anna, born 1733. 8. Samuel, 1735; died 1809. 9. Jacob, 1738; died 1815. 10. Ephraim, 1741; died 1814. .
(IV) Ebenezer Chamberlain, son of Wil- liam (2) Chamberlain, was born in 1729; bap- tized at Dover, New Hampshire; lived at Cen- ter Harbor, New Hampshire. He was a sol- dier in the colonial wars and also in the revo- lution. His sons Jonathan and Daniel were also revolutionary soldiers. He married, 1752, Lucretia Children: 1. Susan, born at Center Harbor or Rochester, in 1753. 2.
Cc.
ET-
Joshua R. chamberlain
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Ebenezer, 1755. 3. Ephraim, 1757. 4. Jona- than, 1759. 5. Daniel, 1762. 6. John, 1768. 7. Joshua, mentioned below.
(V) Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, born in 1770, went from Danvers or Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, to Orrington, Maine, about 1799, where he engaged in shipbuilding, and pros- pered in this business until in the war of 1812 the English forces ascending the Penobscot river destroyed two of his ships-one lying at the dock and another on the stocks. Not able to recover his shattered fortunes here, he re- moved in 1817 to what is now Brewer, six miles further up the river, where he took up a large farm, and with his sons interested him- self again to some degree in shipbuilding. His home was about half a mile above the toll bridge, where he died January 23, 1857, aged eighty-six years. He was a gentleman of the old school, a man of note, and colonel of a regiment of militia in the war with England, and for some time in command of the post at Eastport, Maine. He married Ann Gould, of Danvers, Massachusetts. She died February 19, 1831, aged sixty-eight years. Children : Amelia, Anna P. (died young), Thomas Gould (also died young), Anna, Joshua, Jef- ferson, Ebenezer M., John Q. A., and El- bridge Gerry.
(VI) Joshua (2), second son of Colonel Joshua (I) and Ann (Gould) Chamberlain, was born in Orrington, September 24, 1800, and died August 10, 1880. He was man of much strength of character. He resided in Brewer, where he was a lead- ing citizen in both civil and military mat- ters. He was county commissioner, lieu- tenant-colonel in the militia, and held other offices. He married, October, 1827, Sarah Dupee, daughter of Billings and Lydia (Du- pee ) Brastow, of Holden. She was born Au- gust 23, 1803, and died November 5, 1888, aged eighty-five. She was descended from Jean Dupuis (I), born about 1660, who came from La Rochelle, France, to Boston, Massa- chusetts, in 1685; Charles (2), second son of Jean, born 1695, and served in the colonial wars; Charles (3) Dupee, third son of Charles Dupuis, born 1735, served in the revolution, and in the army lists of that war the spelling of the name was changed to the present form; Lydia (4), fourth daughter of Charles, born 1770, married Billings Brastow. Children of Joshua (2) Chamberlain : 1. Joshua L., men- tioned below. 2. Horace B., born November 14, 1834, died December 7, 1861 ; graduated with honor from Bowdoin College in 1857, and made a brilliant opening in Bangor as a
lawyer; married, May II, 1859, Mary A. Wheeler, of Bangor. 3. Sarah B., born No- vember . 2, 1836, married July 14, 1867, Charles O. Farrington, a merchant of Brewer ; their children are Alice M. and Dana C. Farrington. 4. John Calhoun, born Au- gust 1, 1838, died at Castine, August 1I, 1867, of disease contracted while in the army; graduated from Bowdoin College in 1859, and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1864; was in service of the Christian Commission, and chaplain of Eleventh Volunteers in the civil war. He married, September 13, 1866, Delia F., daughter of John H. Jarvis, of Cas- tine, later of Bangor. 5. Thomas Davee, April 29, 1841, was a soldier in the civil war, serv- ing with great distinction in the line and on the staff, rising to the rank of lieutenant- colonel and colonel U. S. V. He married, De- cember 13, 1871, Delia F. Chamberlain, widow of his brother John; resided in New York and afterward in Bangor, where he died August 12, 1896.
(VII) Governor Joshua L., eldest child of Joshua (2) and Sarah Dupee ( Brastow) Chamberlain, was born in Brewer, September 8, 1828. He received his early education in the public schools of the town and later in Major Whiting's military academy at Ells- worth, Maine, where he prepared for West Point. In 1848, however, he entered Bowdoin and graduated from that college in 1852 with highest honors. He then entered Bangor The- ological Seminary, where in addition to the studies of the regular course, he gave earnest attention to the Arabic and other oriental languages. During his last year here he re- ceived calls to several important churches ; but on graduating he was immediately called to Bowdoin College as special instructor in some of the studies of the department of natural and revealed religion. The next year he was elected professor of rhetoric and oratory, and the year after, having been relieved of some of the duties of this chair, he was appointed also instructor in the French and German languages, which service he continued for two years, when he was elected professor of the Modern Languages of Europe. In July, 1862, he received leave of absence from the college for two years in order to prosecute his studies in Europe, but the war of secession being now serious and a call coming from the President for more troops, he immediately tendered his services to Governor Washburn for any mili- tary duty for which he might be thought cap- able. This was strenuously combatted by his colleagues in the college faculty, who carried
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their opposition to the length of a formal pro- test. He was offered the colonelcy of a regi- ment about to be formed ; but deeming it wiser first to serve under some officer of the regular army, he accepted the appointment of lieuten- ant-colonel of the Twentieth Maine infantry, then being organized, of which Adelbert Ames, of the regular artillery, was to be colonel. He entered at once upon the organization of this regiment, receiving his commission on the 8th of August, 1862, and devoting himself to the study and practice of his duties, he completed the organization of the regiment of a thousand men, and on the 29th of that month, it was mustered into the United States service for three years or during the war. The command now turned over to Colonel Ames, he as- sumed his place as lieutenant-colonel, and in that capacity left with the regiment on the next day for the seat of war.
The regiment was assigned to Butterfield's famous Light Brigade, Morell's Division, Porter's Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, and immediately entered upon the severe ex- periences of the Maryland campaign. On the forced march to South Mountain and to the Antietam battle-field, all the qualities of manly endurance and pride were called into exercise. During that battle the regiment occupied sup- porting positions and made movements of im- portance under fire, but was not actively en- gaged. On September 20 a heavy reconnais- sance was made across Shepardstown ford of the Potomac in pursuit of Lee's retreating army. Here first the regiment sharply en- gaged the enemy. This was a serious affair, and Colonel Chamberlain bore a conspicuous part, being especially complimented for his courage and coolness in steadying the troops of the brigade through the treacherous ford and under heavy fire in the repulse which followed the overwhelming attack of Lee's rear guard of Hill's Corps. The regiment was held on the Antietam battle-field for more than six weeks, guarding the fords of the upper Potomac. This led to new experiences -especially in the line of reconnaissance and outpost duty, in all of which Colonel Cham- berlain took an active part. This encampment on the Antietam, owing to the exhalations and drainage from the battle-field, brought dire disease upon the men, more than three hun- dred being in the hospital with typhoid ma- larial fever, and severe losses befalling the regiment both among officers and men. This opened a new field for duties of superior and commanding officers-study and practice in the care of men.
Early in November the regiment rejoined the main army near Warrenton Junction, Vir- ginia, and from that time actively participated in all the movements, skirmishes and camp- making, until the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13. Here Colonel Chamberlain had experiences of the most severe and testing kind, the closing of which was the withdraw- ing of his regiment from the advance front line, by night, across the whole depth of the battle-field, and over the last pontoon bridge left for the recrossing of our discomfited army. He had an active part in all the movements of that winter, including the notorious "Mud March" and its sequel. During this winter he devoted himself assiduously to the study of his duties, having the advantage of the cir- cumstance that all his superiors in command and many of his own rank were graduates of West Point. He induced the younger of them to hold an evening "school of review" in which all the points pertaining to active duties in the field were carefully gone over. There was no better scholar than Colonel Chamberlain.
At the opening of the Chancellorsville cam- paign, the regiment having been inoculated with smallpox by some misconduct in the medical department, and being sequestered and put into a quarantine camp by itself, Col- onel Ames, having been detached as aide on the staff of the corps commander, General Meade, left the regiment so situated in com- mand of Colonel Chamberlain. He immedi- ately rode to general headquarters and begged to have his regiment given some place at the front, his final plea being "if we can't do any- thing else, we can give the rebels the small- pox !" This struck the fancy of General Hooker, and at midnight he received a dis- patch from General Butterfield, chief of staff, directing him to be at Banks's and United States fords at daylight to take charge of the signal and telegraph lines from headquarters to the several stations on the field of battle, with instructions to put to death any who attempted to disturb communications. While in discharge of duty on the following day he took occasion to join in a charge then being made by his Division, in which his horse was wounded under him. On the night of the withdrawal he worked on the pontoon bridges which were broken up by the freshet, and after all our troops had left that vicinity he withdrew his command-the last on the ground. From this time on his history is part of that of the Army of the Potomac. The mere outline of it would exceed the limits al- lotted here. His inherited military aptitude,
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strengthened by early studies, now finding ample scope in campaigning of the severest or- der, brought him distinction and rapid pro- motion in command. On May 20 he was pro- moted colonel, and soon afterward a hundred and twenty men of the Second Maine Volun- teers were transferred to his regiment. They were in a state of mutiny, owing to their not being discharged with the original two-years men, and as they had openly refused to obey orders they were sent to Colonel Chamber- lain under guard of a Pennsylvania regiment with loaded arms and fixed bayonets, with orders from the corps commander to fire on them if they refused to do duty. Colonel Chamberlain immediately rode to General Meade and got permission to manage the men in his own way. He then took off all the guard, supplied them with proper clothing and food (which had not been issued to them for three days), and assigned them to companies, without giving them any specific orders what- ever, expecting them to be treated and behave like other soldiers. He found no trouble ex- cept in the case of one or two who were tried by court martial, and whose sentences he afterwards succeeded in having remitted. These men of the Second Regiment were af- terwards among his very best. At Gettysburg he was sent at the double-quick to a position of great importance and peril, Little Round Top, the extreme left of the Union lines, where for more than two hours he withstood the repeated assaults of Law's brigade of Hood's division. His ammunition at length exhausted, and for the last half-hour using that of the rebel dead and wounded on the slope he had swept repelling the third assault, nearly half his men having fallen, the situa- tion was critical. A heavy force now coming on with confidence of crushing his little com- mand, he met with a bayonet charge, himself with the colors leading, which completely cleared the southern slope of Little Round Top, capturing four hundred prisoners-twice the number of his men. Returning to his ap- pointed position, in front of which lay one hundred and fifty of the enemy's dead and wounded, he made dispositions with some re- inforcements for meeting any night assault. At dark he received an intimation from his brigade commander that it was desirable to secure the heights of Great Round Top, up whose rugged slope the troops he had repulsed had taken refuge. At once he called his wearied but heroic men, and with no ammuni- tion, with the bayonet alone, in the dense dark- ness pressed on to the very crest of the moun-
tain, capturing many more prisoners. Thus that decisive part of the field was secured and held, and Lee's plan of battle changed. For this heroic conduct the Twentieth Maine re- ceived the personal and official recognition of brigade, division and corps commanders, and Colonel Chamberlain was warmly recom- mended by all his superiors for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. His action here was recognized by the award of the Congres- sional Medal of Honor, the grounds of this as officially stated: "For daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on Little Round Top, and carrying the advanced posi- tion on the Great Round Top, in the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1863." The promotion was not made; but Colonel Cham- berlain was immediately placed in command of his brigade, his division commander, Gen- eral Griffin, declining to receive general officers who were sent for assignment to this brigade. This he devoted himself to bring to the best proficiency. He took an important part in the Culpeper and Centerville campaigns, in- cluding the battle of Rappahannock Station, in which his horse was shot under him. In No- vember, 1863, being worn by long and arduous duty, the exposure of lying out in a heavy snow storm one night without shelter or suffi- cient covering, brought upon him a severe attack of congestion and fever chills, and he was sent in an almost unconscious state from Rappahannock to Washington, by the only means of conveyance, a returning cattle car. After this crisis, as soon as he was able to be out, he made strenuous efforts to return to his command; but was detailed by the Sec- retary of War to serve on an important court martial sitting in Washington and afterwards in Trenton, New Jersey, where he was for some time detained. He obtained a release with much difficulty, and when the army crossed the Rapidan in May he overtook it near Spottsylvania, and finding his brigade in command of another, General Bartlett, he re- joined his regiment. In less than an hour he was placed in command of a "forlorn hope." Seven select regiments were led by him to a desperate charge by night on a portion of a position that had proved impregnable during the day. In this he showed great skill and achieved a remarkable success. From this time forth he held a command above his lineal rank and was put in positions of responsibility and severe tests. He had a conspicuous part in the battles of Cold Harbor and the North Anna. On June Ist, 1864, General Warren, commanding the corps, made up a splendid
c-
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brigade of two consolidated brigades from the old First Corps, and a fine new regiment of veterans of Pennsylvania, and assigned Colonel Chamberlain to command it. This took him quite away from his gallant old Twentieth Maine, whose fortunes he had shared in every battle except the Wilderness. With this veteran brigade he continued the campaign, crossing the James river, and on June 17th moved on Petersburg in advance. On the morning of June 18th he carried a strong advanced position of the enemy a mile beyond our main army. In order to hold this, he established two batteries of artillery on the crest, and entrenched his lines. He was ex- pecting an attack here, when he received a verbal order through an unknown staff officer to assault the main line of rebel works at Rives's salient, then strongly manned with artillery and infantry, all within musket range of the crest he was holding. Forming his six regiments in double lines, he ordered a strong artillery fire from his guns on the crest, and under this he led the charge with his whole staff, when the terrible fire of the enemy, case- shot, canister and furious musketry, swept every one from his side, his flag-bearer was killed, his own horse shot under him, and his front line shattered. Lifting up his fallen flag, he led his troops almost to the enemy's entrenchments. At a desperate moment, wheeling to give a command, Colonel Cham- berlain was shot through the body from hip to hip, severing small arteries and fracturing the pelvic bones. Balancing himself with the point of his sabre, he managed not to fall until his men had passed him in their charge, when the great loss of blood brought him to the ground. Believing the wound to be mortal, he refused to be taken from the field, until all was fairly lost. There was no hope of his life, and an obituary notice was sent to the northern pa- pers. He was, however, carried sixteen miles on a stretcher and sent to Annapolis Naval School Hospital. General Grant, without wait- ing longer for the authorities to act upon previ- ous recommendations, promoted Colonel Cham- berlain on the field, to the rank of brigadier- general, the solitary instance in the history of our army. He was assured of his promotion before he was borne from the field, but the official order published to the army reached him after his arrival at Annapolis. The fol- lowing is a copy of the order :
Headquarters Army of the U. S.,
Special Order No. 39, June 20, 1864.
Col. J. L. Chamberlain, 20th Me. Infty Vols., for meritorious and efficient services on the field of battle, and especially for gallant conduct in leading his brigade against the enemy at Petersburg on the 18th inst., in which he was dangerously wounded, hereby, in pursu-
ance of authority of the Secretary of War, is appointed Brigadier General U. S. Volunteers, to rank as such from the 18th day of June, 1864, subject to the approval of the President.
U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General.
For two months General Chamberlain lay at Annapolis at the point of death, and at the end of five months, and before he could mount a horse or walk a hundred yards, he resumed command of his brigade. Its position at that time was on the extreme left of our front line before Petersburg, and the duties were unre- mitting and responsible. In the subsequent operations against the Weldon railroad, Gen- eral Chamberlain had an active part, being sent with his command to make proper dispo- sitions by night and to keep the enemy at bay along an extensive front, while the rest of our troops destroyed the railroad. A
severe snow storm and sleet added to the severities of the operation, and on the last of January, 1865, his wounds had become so aggravated that his corps commander insisted on his being sent to Philadelphia for surgical treatment. While suffering under this, and without much pros- pect of permanent recovery, he received many tempting offers to leave the military service and accept positions in civil life. Wishing, however, with such strength as might be given him, to stand by his men and his country to the last, he declined these offers, stole a march upon his surgeons, and leaving his room for the first time after he had taken it, started on a painful journey to the front again, where he arrived after an absence of a month. His brigade now consisted of new regiments of veteran troops from New York and Pennsyl- vania, and his post was the extreme advance on Hatcher's Run, and in immediate contact with the enemy. On March 29 our great offensive movement commenced, and, as had before been confidentially announced to Gen- eral Chamberlain, he was to have the costly honor of leading the advance and opening the campaign. With his single brigade and a battery of regular artillery, he encountered the enemy on Quaker Road, their force con- sisting of cavalry and infantry of Johnson's and Anderson's commands, and in number, as was afterwards ascertained, five times his own. After a long and severe battle in which at different times he had both his flanks turned, his center broken, and lost four hun- dred men and eighteen officers-every one of his mounted officers, including his personal staff, being either killed or wounded, his own horse shot under him and himself twice pain- fully wounded in the breast and arm-the en- emy was driven from his position, which en-
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