After years of my husband’s urging to read Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels, I finally picked it up over vacation a few weeks ago.  A historical fiction chronicle of Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest battles of all time, did not seem like light reading, so I kept putting it off until Terry, never one to demand, said “READ IT!” in both a pleading and exasperated tone.  I gave in.    As usual, he was right.  I loved it.  It was enthralling, moving, challenging and kept my attention.   It was meaningful reading.

And it also provided me with my latest historical crush.

You know–you read some piece of history or watch a great mini-series or movie, and think, “I love that guy! (or girl).”  You are inspired by him and moved by his courage or her honor.  And of course you picture this person gorgeous if it’s in writing, and if on TV or film, beauty has usually been provided.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is my latest crush.   A man who prior to the outbreak of the war was a college professor at Bowdoin in Maine.  Then the Civil War began and he wanted to serve his country despite the college’s objections.  The Governor of Maine appointed him Lieutenant Colonel of the newly raised 20th Maine regiment.   While he was involved in a failed campaign at Fredericksburg,  his defending of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, including a daring and tactically brilliant charge when outmanned and armed, is what got him on the map.  Ken Burns  said of Chamberlain in a speech at Harvard:

 It is my belief that Chamberlain represents the best kind of history, the best kind of American. His is the story which always gets overlooked in the superficial aerial views of history we are usually presented with. He enlivens, though, page after page of history, as we learn first of his early life as a professor at Bowdoin, then as the green colonel of the twentieth Maine, finally as hero at Fredericksburg, Petersburg, and Gettysburg–especially Gettysburg, where on Little Round Top he executes an obscure textbook maneuver that saves the Union army and quite possibly the Union itself.  http://www.dce.harvard.edu/pubs/lowell/kburns.html

I’ll save you my unqualified history lesson of Gettysburg and get straight to the point.  Chamberlain was amazing–both educated and able to fight.   He was humble, courageous, and stepped up in a moment and time that neither he nor anyone could fully comprehend.  It is not a stretch at all to say that his defending of Little Round Top, and thus the entire Union Army’s left flank, saved the Battle of Gettysburg for the Union and led to the eventual end of the South’s campaign.  Kind of big, wouldn’t you say?  Our entire nation’s future right square on his shoulders, and they were wide enough for it.  *(http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/joshua-lawrence-chamberlain.html.).

I know a lot of women right now are crushing on Christian from 50 Shades of Grey.  Yes, I read it to see what all the fuss was about; I’m a  true Lit major at heart and hate it when folks rant against something they’ve never read.  So I rant with authority–I hated 50 Shades and it’s main leading man Christian.  I don’t judge those who loved the book and him.  Well, let’s be honest; I do, because I just don’t get the allure of the tortured man who wants to love well, but alas, just cannot.  But he’s so good inside…just troubled…needs a good woman to bring the good out.

Pah-leeze.  I did not fall for that line in my mid twenties when someone wanted to set me up with her cousin who was a “good man but just needed a good woman to bring it out.”  No thank you, I said to myself back then.    If he’s not good and noble before he gets to me, then I don’t want him.  I wanted a man who was good before me, good with me, and good after me.  Not perfect, but the kind of man who could both talk intelligently, love deeply, but would defend you in a fight if needed.  May be that’s why it took so long to find him!

Was Joshua Chamberlain perfect?  I highly doubt that.  Not one to romanticize, I assume he had many faults too and sometimes made his wife crazy.   But when it mattered, he did what he had to do, not knowing if it were the right thing or even the best thing.   But in those moments of monumental purpose that led to a county staying together, he did what his character, his soul, his very being told him to.    And it turned out to be key.

I think I crush on the Chamberlains over the Greys, the “reals” over the romanticized, because I want to believe that people, men and women alike, can be good, can be heroic, can make a difference.  I’ve always wanted to be one of those people and hope that I can be.  The vast majority of us are not in the kind of battle Chamberlain was by any stretch, and thank God for that.  I do believe, however, that the little battles of character, the doing of the right thing in the smallest of difficult circumstances, do make a difference in the large mosaic that is life.  I certainly hope that’s the case, because I keep banking my life on it.

So here’s to you, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, my latest historical crush.    As Burns said, you’re the best kind of American.

Not bad looking either;  Like an 1860’s Bradley Cooper