Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born in Brewer, September, 1828. After graduation he pursued theological studies at Bangor Seminary, graduating in 1855, and received a license to preach, but never assumed the ministerial office, being called to a tutorship in the college. At the close of the year he was elected professor of rhetoric and oratory, in the year following instructor in modern languages, and two years after professor of the same department. In 1862, with leave of absence from the trustees and overseers, he offered himself to military service in the Civil War, for which he had probably imbibed a taste, and was in a measure prepared by early training in the military school at Ellsworth. He entered the army with rank of lieutenant-colonel, served to the close of the war with distinction, and ended with the brevet of major-general and command of a division, and participated in several important battles; was twice, once severely, wounded, won repeated commendations from his superiors, was once promoted brigadier-general by Gen. Grant on the field "for gallant conduct in leading his brigade in a charge," was in the advance in the last action of the war, and was designated to receive the formal surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House. In 1865 he returned to his home, resigned his professorship, soon after became governor of Maine, and was thrice re-elected. In 1867 he received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from the college, was chosen a trustee, and in 1871 its president. To the ordinary duties of the presidency had been added, when Dr. Harris assumed the office, the professorship of mental and moral philosophy; and in the straitened resources of the college, President Chamberlain has given instruction in international law and political economy. In 1876 he was elected major-general of the militia of the State, and although he resigned the position in 1879 was urged to retain it, — as has been proved, with great advantage to the State, inasmuch as in that position he was able to render important service in the very critical embroilment of political relations which threw a cloud over the opening of the present year (1880). In 1878 he visited Europe, moving been appointed by President Hayes on the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of that year, with special view to systems of education. Besides inaugural and annual addresses as governor of the State and president of the college, he has published several others delivered on public occasions, the most elaborate and noticeable of them being that at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, published by order of the Legislature of Maine, entitled "Maine: Her Place in History," and his report as commissioner to the Paris Exposition.

President Chamberlain married in Brunswick, Caroline Frances, daughter of Ashur Adams, Esq., of Boston; and Emily, daughter of George Wyllys, Hartford, Conn., an adopted daughter of Rev. Dr. G. E. Adams of Brunswick. They have had four children, of whom a son, now a member of the Junior class in the college, and a daughter survive.

SOURCE: Nehemiah Cleveland, History Of Bowdoin College: With Biographical Sketches Of Its Graduates, p.671-2