History & local legend
On July 2, 1863, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th Maine helped defend Little Round Top at Gettysburg. A legend about the regiment’s arrival gives the soldiers an extraordinary guide: George Washington, riding ahead of them long after his death.
In the folklore version, the men reached a fork and were unsure which route to take. A horseman wearing a faded uniform and a three-cornered hat appeared and led them toward the hill. Horse and rider seemed to glow, and the soldiers recognized the man’s face from portraits of Washington.
A recollection preserved by historian John J. Pullen is more restrained. Asked late in life about Washington on a white horse, Chamberlain said the report had circulated through the lines; he did not claim to have seen the rider himself. The regiment’s documented fighting on Little Round Top ended with a bayonet charge when its ammunition ran low. The supernatural escort became part of the lore surrounding that defense.
Sources
- Justine Johanna Bowe, Linger, Tufts University, 2012, pages 18–19, glowing rider and the fork in the road
- Mark Nesbitt, Ghosts of Gettysburg, opening epigraphs citing John J. Pullen’s The 20th Maine and Jack McLaughlin’s Gettysburg: The Long Encampment
- National Park Service, 20th Maine Infantry Regiment Monument, July 2 position and bayonet charge
- Stone Sentinels, field guide and coordinates for each of the 20th Maine’s Gettysburg monuments
