Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine. He was the eldest of five children. Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain changed his name because he believed that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain sounded more "prestigious". In the community he lived in shipbuilding and farming was what it was most known for. He worked on the farm with his father, and had teaching experience like many other young men his age.

Joshua as a child was educated at Whiting military and Classical Academy in Ellsworth at the age of fourteen. Then was teaching himself Greek in order to enter Bowoin College in 1848. In his years of College he studied traditional classical curriculum and showed great skill at languages. Chamberlain joined a "secret society" of "pious, serious- minded youth" called Alpha Delta Phi. In 1851 going to hear Harriet Beecher Stowe read pages of her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on...