Joshua Chamberlain’s Favorite Drink?

It’s well known that Stonewall Jackson had an affinity for lemons, while James Longstreet enjoyed his cigars. But did you know that Joshua Chamberlain liked… port wine?

The professor-turned-soldier drank only occasionally, but when he did, it appears he favored a fortified wine.

Chamberlain wrote to his wife Fanny on August 30, 1863, after the Union Army of the Potomac’s retreat from Gettysburg the previous month. In that letter, he professed his affinity for two libations: port wine and Madeira.

“We are in a beautiful camp, in full view of the enemies [sic] picket and are on the opposite slope,” he wrote from the regiment’s bivouac at Beverly Ford, Virginia. The previous day, Chamberlain had led the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, of the V Corps in observation of the execution of five deserters. “Anxiety to handle the Brigade well in the presence of so many spectators, and the painful strains on my nerves at being obliged to assist at so awful a spectacle no doubt overtaxed my not yet restored powers,” the colonel wrote to his wife.[1]

That summer had been a trying one for Chamberlain. He had suffered from the effects of dysentery and malaria during the Gettysburg Campaign, sometimes seeking the comfort of private homes on the march to and from Pennsylvania.

Then, Chamberlain’s tone shifted in his letter. “[Adjutant William] Donnell came today and didn’t bring me any port wine!” he teased. He instructed Fanny to “get two bottles of that for me and two of Madeira” so that they would arrive in Virginia as soon as possible.[2]

In my opinion, moments like this help to humanize the Civil War’s most celebrated figures, revealing that even they enjoyed something as familiar to us as a glass of wine from time to time!

[1] Thomas Desjardin, ed. Joshua Chamberlain: A Life in Letters, (Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2012), 206-207.

[2] Desjardin, Joshua Chamberlain: A Life in Letters, 206.