Joshua Chamberlain After the Civil War

 

In the spring of 1865, Union hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the "Lion of Little Round Top," mustered out. His bayonet charge at Gettysburg had etched him into legend, but a wound suffered at Petersburg in 1864 , a Minié ball that shattered his pelvis, left him in chronic agony.

Returning to Maine, Chamberlain's entered politics. Elected governor in 1866, he served four one-year terms, championing veterans' aid, education reform, and Black civil rights amid Ku Klux Klan threats. A moderate Republican, he navigated partisan strife, finally earning the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his actions at Gettysburg.

Chamberlain’s marriage was complex and sometimes strained.  Modern biographers often describe their relationship as: deeply loving but mismatched, shaped by 19th‑century expectations of gender, duty, and sacrifice, and a casualty of war, in its own way. 

In 1871, Chamberlain became president of Bowdoin College where he had once been a professor of rhetoric and oratory.  There, the former professor modernized curricula, boosted enrollment, and fostered intellectual rigor.  In 1880, Chamberlain commanded the militia to restore order during a disputed Maine election.

In 1898, Chamberlain at the age of 70, volunteered to command US Army forces in the Spanish American War. He was passed over due to health issues.

He died in 1914 at the age of eighty-five.  His memoirs The Passing of the Armies were published posthumously in 1915.

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Jubal Early and the Lost Cause

 

In the aftermath of Appomattox in April 1865, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early rejected the sting of surrender. Disguised as a ragged farmer, he slipped through Union lines, hiding in Franklin County, Virginia, before fleeing to Mexico. This "unreconstructed rebel" refused to accept defeat, embarking on a nomadic exile across the Caribbean and finally to Canada.

 Early channeled his fury into ink. His Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence published in 1867 recast the Confederacy's fall not as military folly, but as betrayal by weak leaders and Northern treachery. The book ignited the "Lost Cause" flame, a narrative that romanticized the Old South.

 Pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869, Early returned to Lynchburg, resuming the practice of law. There, he weaponized words and oratory, through speeches that vilified federal overreach. As president of the Southern Historical Society, he helped erect monuments and curated histories, re-enforcing Southern identity.

Early became an outspoken and vehement critic of Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet who after the war worked for the Grant Administration.  Early found particular fault with Longstreet’s actions at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Early also often criticized Ulysses S. Grant as a "butcher."

 Jubal Early died unbowed in 1894, and was buried in Lynchburg.

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General Phil Sheridan After the Civil War

 

Following the American Civil War, Union General Philip Sheridan transitioned from battlefield triumphs to key roles in Reconstruction and westward expansion. In 1867, he was appointed military governor of the Fifth Military District, overseeing Texas and Louisiana. Known for his stringent enforcement, Sheridan removed Confederate sympathizers from office and suppressed Ku Klux Klan activities

Transferred to the Department of the Missouri, Sheridan directed campaigns against Plains tribes during the Indian Wars. Employing "total war" strategies from the Civil War, he authorized winter assaults, destruction of villages, and encouraged buffalo extermination to force Native Americans onto reservations. He oversaw conflicts like the Red River War (1874/1875), the Great Sioux War (1876/1877), and the Nez Perce War (1877), effectively subduing resistance but drawing criticism for brutality.

Promoted to lieutenant general in 1869, Sheridan succeeded William T. Sherman as Commanding General of the U.S. Army in 1883. He advocated for Yellowstone National Park's protection, deploying cavalry to safeguard it from exploitation. Marrying Irene Rucker in 1875, he enjoyed a quieter later life until suffering heart attacks. Congress promoted him to full general on June 1, 1888, weeks before his death on August 5 at age 57 in Nonquitt, Massachusetts. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Sheridan's legacy blends Civil War heroism with controversial conquests in the West.

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