Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828. He was the first of four children born to Joshua and Sarah Chamberlain of Brewer, Maine. Starting with his name, Lawrence was forever linked to the military history of the United States.

Named by his father for Captain James Lawrence of the U.S.S. USS Chesapeake, who during the War of 1812 was mortally wounded and before being carried below ordered his men to "Fight her 'til she sinks and don't give up the ship." Shortly afterwards, the crew of the Chesapeake were over run by a British boarding party and surrender the ship.

Later in the war, with his flag ship the Lawrence badly damaged and sinking, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry rowed in a small boat over a half a mile under enemy fire proudly displaying a flag with the words "Don't give up the ship." After transferring his flag to the Niagara, Perry's fleet defeated the British clearing the waters of Lake Erie. In his battle report, Perry wrote "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop".

 It would be 35 years before Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, as he now called himself, would make his own mark in history by ordering his Twentieth Maine Infantry to charge down the bloody slopes of Little Round Top at Gettysburg.