The Passing of Armies: An Account Of The Final Campaign Of The Army Of The Potomac (Eyewitness to the Civil War)

I was introduced to Chamberlain thanks to the movie Gettysburg and later Gods and Generals, which made me go read the books by the two Sharaa's. Which in turn made me decide to see if he was a real person or not. When I discovered that he had existed I wanted to find anything and everything that I could find about him. Well this was the first. I knew he was highly educated, but I didn't realize just how highly his education it was until I started reading. I came across words that I had to go look up. And he has areas where he'll throw in Latin with no translation provided, then again I don't think he ever intended to publish this. This book is a great insight into what he went through from about the Battle of the White Oak Road on to the Disbandment of the Armies. He tends to go into the fine details of the battles with approximation of battle losses for both sides. He will also take a very highly negative view of General Sheridan and idolize General Warren, who would be removed from command of the Fifth Corps to which he was attached. Over all I found it to be a great book and worthy for any Historian or History Buffs bookshelf.

Very few books have been written to which the term "classic" has been almost immediately applied. The Passing of the Armies by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is one of those books. Chamberlain enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 and was immediately commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry. In May 1863 he was commissioned Colonel of the regiment and it was this position that he held when the 20th Maine gained renown for its defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. By the end of the Civil War he had risen to the rank of Major General and he carried shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life as a result of wounds received during the conflict. Prior to enlisting Chamberlain was a college professor, having graduated from Bowdoin College in 1852. In 1856 he was teaching classes in natural and revealed religion at Bowdoin. By 1861 he added Professor of Modern Languages and in 1862 he had been granted a two year sabbatical to study in Europe when he decided to fight for the Union. After the war he was twice elected Governor of Maine; he became President of Bowdoin in 1876 and in later life he served as a government surveyor during the McKinley Administration. Chamberlain begins his narrative with the beginning of the final campaign of the Army of the Potomac against Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. It was the spring of 1864 and Union General Ulysses S. Grant had Lee and his army backing up toward what finally became the siege of Petersburg, Virginia. The final campaign began on March 30, 1864 when the two armies clashed along the White Oak Road just southwest of Petersburg. Grant and Lee hurled their troops at each other's line in such a tenacious manner that Chamberlain was surprised when, at the end of the battle, Grant ordered a maneuver around Lee's flank instead of falling back to regroup, as had been the custom of the Union Army after sharp engagements during the preceding years of conflict. The author then goes on to discuss every major action of the campaign through the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia and the final Grand Review of the Union Army in Washington, D.C. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was not a historian. He wrote in the introduction to the book: "History is written for the most part from the outside. Truth often suffers distortion by reason of the point of view of the narrator, some preoccupation of his judgment or fancy not only as to relative merits but even as to facts in their real relations." In this same paragraph he writes that he will simply tell of things as he saw them. What Chamberlain did was to write a book that transcended the entire war. He was able to see the participants for what they were; men doing a job as best as they could, given the horrific circumstances. At Appomattox he and his regiment had been assigned to oversee the final act of the surrender, the stacking of arms and the furling

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's book is a well written, detailed account of the final days of the Civil War. (As it should be - he was a Rhetoric Professor at Bowdoin College.) The book is not for those with a desire to read a more action packed or anecdotal view of the Civil War. It is intended to be a historically accurate and detailed account of what happened during the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

For any student of the Civil War north or south this is a must read! It is well written and informative. And to top it all off it was written by a person who was there. This is not a second hand account.

There can be little doubt about it; this book is a 300 page poem. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the school teacher from Maine who rose to Brevet Major-General, wounded six times in battle, and commanded the surrender ceremony at Appomattox, effortlessly composed, in the waning years of his life, one of the most beautifully-written Civil War reminicenses ever written. You will feel every emotion Chamberlain felt, because it cannot be helped- his writing is irresistable, it is as understated and dignified as he was, both in battle and in life. It is truly wonderful.