The Killer Angels - Joshua L. Chamberlain

595 Words3 Pages
Michael Shaara’s novel The Killer Angels focuses on quite a few important historical from both sides of the civil war. The main Union figure and easily the most interesting character in my eyes is Joshua Chamberlain, a handsome 34 year old[1] colonel of the Twentieth Maine regiment with an intriguing past and a personality that is easily popular among the book’s audience for a large number of reasons. Unlike many of the other characters in the novel, Chamberlain is a lower-ranked member of the Union Army. This ends up meaning several things about his character as a whole to begin with. For one, many of the men under his (relatively narrow) command are his friends and companions. In fact, his younger brother Tom Chamberlain who’s a lieutenant frequently accompanies him throughout the entire Gettysburg ordeal. For these reasons, Chamberlain is a more attentive leader of his regiment, he relates much more comfortably with his men, and is even seen in multiple scenes eating humble meals with his soldiers. Although this may not seem that significant at first, it is a sharp contrast from the behaviors of higher-ranking characters on the confederate side (Robert Lee or James Longstreet). Another commendable aspect of Shaara’s writing is the way he depicts Chamberlain as a “citizen turned soldier”. Before becoming a colonel, he was a professor at the Bowdoin College, in his essence he’s an intellectual, a characteristic that not only distinguishes him greatly from most participants of the war (including the main characters), but makes him a much more relatable figure to the reader. This all leaves a remarkable impression to know that this hardened soldier, who now enjoys being a participant of the war and undoubtedly history, was once and ordinary man like you and I. We see more of how he may be considered an intellectual throughout the later chapters.
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