Joshua Chamberlain (1828-1914)
Filed under the name Joshua · October 17, 2026
Joshua Chamberlain was a college professor who became a Union Army officer, and his determined defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg is remembered as an actual turning point in the battle — a moment where the outcome could genuinely have gone the other way, and didn't, because of decisions made under enormous pressure. I think about crisis moments like that in a much smaller way, because my bakery nearly closed twice, once in year two and once during the pandemic, and both times it was close enough that a different decision at the wrong moment could have ended it for good. Chamberlain's stakes were obviously incomparably higher, but there's something in that experience of holding a line when everything is genuinely uncertain that I recognize even from a much smaller kitchen. He went on to serve as Governor of Maine afterward, which tells you the instinct to keep serving and building didn't stop once the immediate crisis passed. Some people just keep showing up for the next hard thing.