History : Heroes ~ Key Figures ~ Historial Data ~ USCC Women ~ Hospitality ~ Medical Care ~ Delegate Duties

John Chamberlin

John Chamberlain was one of the first U.S. Christian Commission delegates to arrive at Gettysburg. He rode to the battle of Little Round Top on July 2, 1863 with his legendary brothers, Joshua and Tom. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College and attending Bangor Theological Seminary when he served in the U.S. Christian Commission

The Battle of Little Round Top : July 2, 1863

This is the way I spent my time at Gettysburg -- going round the hospitals, reading in the faces of the men their wants and trying to relieve them, speaking words of comfort and religious consolation, and gathering their dying messages to their friends at home. After all, my dear sir, our labors at such times are of such a nature that we can give but a faint idea of them on paper. There are a thousand little nameless acts which the world cannot know, nor we ourselves recall, that are none the less important in their issues. The grateful soldier notes them, one by one, and thanks God for the Christian Commission. I cannot close without telling you the pleasure it gave me, as I walked over the battle field among the dead, to find lying by their sides, and many already open, books of the Christian Commission distribution.

I am, your obedient servant,
John C. Chamberlain
( Excerpt from John Chamberlain Diary : Reprinted in "The US Christian Commission- Gettysburg" by Daniel Hosington, Edinborough Press)

Joshua Chamberlain

Wrote of the approach to Little Round Top on July 2, 1863

"At that fiery moment three brothers of us were riding abreast, and a solid shot driving close past our faces disturbed me. "Boys," I said, "I don't like this. Another such shot might make it hard for mother. Tom, go to the rear of the regiment, and see that it is well closed up! John, pass up ahead and look out a place for our wounded." Tom, the youngest Lieutenant of Company G, was serving as adjutant of the regiment; John, a little older, was sent out by the Christian Commission for this battle, and I had applied for him. We had no surgeon; the old ones were gone, and the new ones not come. So I pressed him into field hospital service, with Chaplain French and the ambulance men, under charge of Hospital Steward Baker. "