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Curufinwe_F
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Name: Feanor
Country: United States
State: Washington
Metro: Olympia
Birthday: 5/4/1900
Gender: Male
Interests: I looooove Lord of the Rings. I know it backwards and fowards. I'd beat you in any game of Trivial Pursuit Lord of the Rings! MWahahahaha! I also like to do Robotics, but haven't found enough time recently. Piano too. And Culinary. I have a rudimentary interest in Linguistics, due to my brother, through osmosis. Particularly with asian languages, Latin, and Finnish/Hungarian family.
Expertise: 10 years of Piano, quite happy with where I am currently. 1 year of Culinary, 2 years of Er-Hu, 3 years of Robotics, 2 years of Latin Percussion, and 13 years of Origami.
Occupation: Military
Industry: Government
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  feanoroffinwe
Member Since:
1/12/2005
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She smiled upon his face as he walked through the door.
“It has been a long time, Lawrence.”
“Far too long, Fanny, my dear wife. It has been far too long.” He ran forward into her arms and hugged her. It was good to be home.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain woke up the next morning, happy to finally be done with the war. 4 long, greuling years were tiring, but it was refreshing for him to be home.
“Good morning, dear”, he said to his wife, as he met her in the kitchen.
She smiled at him. “Good morning to you, too!”
“Well, what do we plan to do today, being my first day home from war. Go on a picnic? Into the city? Anything you wish,” he said.
“Anything, eh? Well, just so happens that I invited a bunch of the local children over to hear your stories. They wanted to meet a real war-hero!” she laughed. Fanny knew that her husband was not one of many spoken words, rather keeping most of them inside his own mind. “This will be good for him”, she thought. “It will be good to see him open up to the curious minds of children.”
So there he sat, in the living room in his favorite armchair, with about 5 young children crowded around in front of him. He laughed inwardly, as his eyes sparkled. “I knew I never should have trusted my wife to plan anything for me”, he laughed.
“Now, what are your names?” he asked. He looked at their faces as each one introduced themselves. “Anne, Edward, Bobby, Emily, and Susan. My, what wonderful names. My name is...”
“We know who you are!!”, proclaimed young Anne, who couldn't have been more than 5 years old.
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes! You're Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain! Mama said that you're a war hero!! Mama also said that you like to be called Lawrence, though.”
Lawrence laughed. “She was exagerrating, little Anne. All the men of the war were heros, even those who fought for the South.
“So, what do you want to hear about first?”
Emily beamed. “Oooh, I want to hear about you as a child first. You know, no older than us.”
“Hm...I'm not sure that I can remember that. It was such a long, long, time ago.” He winked at her, then smiled at his wife as she watched from the doorway. “Well, I was born September 8, 1828, if you can think of a year so long ago. It IS 1865 now, after all.
“Well, lets see.... I was born in the little town of Brewer, Maine. It was a farming and shipbuilding community, that of which could be seen everywhere you went. It was a nice little town, with lots of charm. I lived next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who many of you might have heard of.”
Edward, the smartest—yet sometimes the most obnoxious—of the lot, immediately spoke up. “I have! She's the woman who wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' She met President Lincoln, who said that she was the little lady who made the big war.”
Lawrence laughed inwardly. “Yes, your quite right, though your facts are a little skewed. Well, I lived near her, and would often go to her house and listen to parts of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' as she wrote it. It was all quite exciting, and much of the book that I remembered later in life led me to make decisions that I never would have made with out that book.
“Another thing that influenced my decisions a lot was my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, out Father. I was raised as a Puritan and a Huguenot, you see. My family is a long line of devout Christians.”
“So you went to war right after you finished reading the book?” Anne asked.
“Oh, heavens, no!” he chuckled. “It was years later before I even picked up a musket. Though it might have been much sooner.
“My father wanted me to go to West Point, a military academy, to follow a long military tradition running through my family. My great-grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War, my grandfather in the War of 1812, and my father had commanded troops in the Aroostook War. I loved the military, and would have readily joined, if it had not been a time of peace. I have no love for war, but I could not think of anything more boring in the entire war than to be sitting around in the Army while there was nothing going on.
“So instead I entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, at the age of 19. It was then 1848. It was all very fun, I learned quite a few things. I was also able to improve quite a lot in public speaking, and by my third year, won an award for it. I also greatly improved in my singing and playing the organ, both of which I thaught myself.”
“We have an organ at home!” Anne exclaimed.
“Well, then I must come over some time!” he replied. “I also played the bass viol on occasion.
“It was also at this time that I met my wonderful wife, Frances Caroline Adams” he said with a wink. Fanny smiled back at him, eyes laughing, knowing that he had called her “Frances” just to irk her. Frances. What a dreadful name.
“I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. It was a while before we did get married, though. I went to Bangor Theological Seminary for three years first. We married after I graduated in 1855.
“I was then offered many jobs, mostly as ministers or missionaries. But I wanted to stay close to home, so I instead chose to teach modern languages and rhetoric at Bowdoin College. Modern languages was a fun job, and came quite naturally to me, as I already had mastered nine languages: Greek, Latin, French, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Syriac.”
“Wow, you must be really really old to have learned so much. But you don't have any white hair! My grandfather says that when you get old, you get lots of white hair” Anne said.
“Haha! No, I was not that old. If you want to learn that much, all you need to do is study hard” Lawrence said. “But for that remark, I shall stop my story” he emphatically pronounced, with a stern face.
“Awwww...” complained the whole group.
“But I must stop,” said Lawrence, “for Fanny here has prepared a snack for you. Go on, go on into the kitchen.” He looked up and smiled at his wife as the children all ran into the kitchen. “I'll get back at you for putting me up to this. Especially for that “old” remark.
Fanny laughed. “Well, what about Frances?”
“Touché!” he exclaimed, eyes sparkling at her.
When the children had finished their snack, they all ran back into the living room. It was already the late afternoon, Lawrence having started his tale at about 2 o'clock. The sunlight streamed through the window, casting shadows all over the floor. Once again, all the children were sitting on the floor as Lawrence prepared to continue his tale.
“Okay, where did I leave off?” he asked. “Oh yes, I had just told you that I had become a professor at Bowdoin College. Well, in 1861, the Civil War broke out. I'm sure most of you were too young to remember anything at the time, and all of you were up here in Maine where there was no fighting. I, on the other hand, felt a great urge to serve my country. I had to fight, it was the right thing to do. I myself never believed in slavery, all men are created equal. I had to fight. My college wasn't too happy about that, though.”
“How come?” asked Bobby.
“Because they didn't want to lose their greatest professor, of course!” replied Edward.
Lawrence grinned. “Surely, they didn't want to lose their greatest. Well, I had recently been granted a paid leave of absence to go to Europe to study languages, which means that I got paid to to have a holiday.”
“Wow, I'd sure like to go to Bowdoin College some day” said Emily.
“Oh yes, it's a terrific school. Anyway, instead of going to Europe, I offered my services to the US Military. Thus I became the Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. My brother was also in that regiment, having volunteered at the same time that I did. He was a sergeant, under my command. It became my duty to take care of Mother's-favorite, and make sure that he never got into any trouble. I am very proud of him, though. He later went on to become a lieutenat-colonel.
“As a lieutenant colonel, I led my tropps to many different engagements, that is, battles. We went to many, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville among them. I saw my regiment become skilled at the art of war, and good enough to be pitted against any Confederate Unit. But in my course through the war, I saw many, many horrifying things which I will not talk about to you here.” Lawrence sat there, contemplating. “It was horrifying” he thought. “The bivouac with the dead at Fredericksburg especially so. I shall never forget the images of the slain men on the countryside.”
Lawrence gathered himself, then continued. “Gettysburg was a life-changing battle in which I fought. I had now become a full colonel in command of the 20th Maine, as was sent, on the second day of fighting, to guard the flank of the Union lines. That is, to protect the side-line of the Union Army from the Confederates. Oh, it was a greuling battle, and we repressed many Confederate assaults. We were almost out of ammunition when I ordered a bayonet charge, which saved the day. The name of the hill on which we fought I will never forget. Little Round Top. For that day's fighting, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, though I believe that every man that fought that day deserved it just as much as I did.
“Thus I fought many times, in many battles. I was also wounded several times, and even the doctors thought I was going to die. But I must have fought to live pretty well, as I am here today to tell you about my life.
“Eventually, I was promoted through the ranks to a Major General, and put in charge of many different units. I took part in the campaign to capture the Army of Northern Virginia, of which General Robert E. Lee was in command. A great man he was.
“We finally caught up with him, and General Lee himself surrendered his entire army to General Grant, my commander. I was deeply touched to be given the honor to receive the formal surrender of troops from Confederate General Gordon. I remember that day well. There was no cheering as the Confederate Army walked past, it was silent, as if it was the passing of the dead. I ordered my troops to salute the men who had fought so bravely and were surrendering so bravely. And that was the end of the war.
“So, that is the end of the story” finished Lawrence. “Our troops disbanded, and I came back here to my wife, and my lovely home-state of Maine.”
“Did you really do all those things?” asked Anne in wonder.
“Yes I did” replied Lawrence. “And one day, you may be called upon by your country to do just as I did, to serve it.”
Fanny watched from the door and smiled. All the children thanked Lawrence for his tale and ran home, laughing and shouting about the story that they had just heard. Lawrence continuted to sit in the sun-drenched room, thinking. Yes, it was good to be home.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a great man. In his saluting of the surrendered Confederate Army, he drew a lot of criticism from the North who believed that they were not worthy of such an honor. However, it was a honorable thing to do. The Confederate General Gordon later said that Chamberlain was “one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army.”
Chamberlain would later go on to become the Governor of Maine for 4 terms, and “helped establish a century of domination of Maine politics by the Republican Party.” He later would become the President of Bowdoin College, and continuted to teach and write throughout the rest of his life. He passed away in 1914 at the age of 85 from his war wounds.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had done many great things, including a great reform of the Bowdoin College curriculum and Maine politics. He also fought bravely in the Civil War, ever the icon of honorable actions. He is now immortalized in Maine as their greatest hero, the very model of a citizen-soldier. | | |
| Happy Saturday, everyone. 
Saturday is a good day, especially for me. It means *finally* a break
from school. Yet it brings forth the dread of when this short-lived
holiday will be over, when life goes back to one of drudgery and
tiredness. But I will survive. It's only 3 more years, what harm can
that do? I have survived 10 years so far.
But then, it will be time for college, the untouchable epitome of
education. It's also amazing how so much fun can be involved. Several
people say that their college years were the best years of their life,
and even plan to go back to college once they can afford it both
economically and time-wise. It would be interesting to do that; to
learn more about the world around us, to learn how to relate to the
younger generation. But me, being still in my youthful age of 14,
cannot yet fathom such feelings. But they will come in time, in time.
Happy Saturday. I especially look foward to this weekend, as Monday is
a public holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That means a three day
weekend. 
3 day weekends are great, even though I probably won't be celebrating
it fully. There is something about a Monday that demands work, demands
the going back to the routines of a working life. Unless you're a
Pastor, of course. 
Happy Saturday. Saturday also means being able to do whatever you
planned to do but just hadn't found the time to do over the week. So
Saturday thus is a busy yet relaxing day. A day when you can finally
finish all that needed to be finished.
Happy Saturday. Saturday is a good day. Make the most of it that you can. | | |
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Hello, all. 'course there aren't that many that'll actually qualify
as "all", being that there'll probably be only one other person that
know about this blog. Just gonna mess around here, playing with HTML...(Xanga gives much more HTML freedom then Blogspot does. hm...)
APUSH
is doing well, we're actually going to start writing timed (timed!)
essays now. Not too hard, but I don't do very well writing under time
constraints. Not that I don't work well under pressure, in fact, I work
the best under pressure. I just don't like time contraints.
I also have 2 chapters to read this week instead of just one, which
totals out at 100 pages. Ugh. I hate my history text book, at least in
this chapter. It completely glosses over the Civil War. HOW can you
talk about the Civil War in just 50 pages!??! It barely has 600 words
JUST on Gettysburg! AUGH! *sigh* I'm just going to have to do outside
research, I guess.
w00t! I SURVIVED. My Boy Scout troop decided to
go camping this past weekend, in 25 degree weather (-4 for all you
still using Celcius, meaning Thailand, Malaysia, and...?). Crazy. I did
well though, but the tent leaked. My stuff got a bit wet. 
I also caught a small cold, inhaling smoke the whole night of the
campfire. But I'm doing better. On the repair. Next month, we're
actually going SNOW CAMPING!!! w00t! We're going to build igloos,
ice-caves, use snow shoes, go hiking, so fun! I'm really seriously
looking foward to it. THIS time, my stuff will NOT get wet.  I'll fill you in more about the camping when it happens.
Piano
has been fun. So many things going on. I'm currently
playing/practicing/learning 5 songs, which is quite alot when all of
them are over 4 minutes. If I'm to practice them properly, of course.
It's quite fun. I'm also preparing quite a few different
competitions/events. One judication, two festivals, one master-class,
and one competition. I'm really looking foward to the competition, to
see how good I actually am. I'll be playing Gershwin's Prelude #1, if I
can get it finished. AWESOME song. The link is... here.
That's a recording of the song. Not too good, because it was spliced
from a tape. And I didn't play it. Someone else did, back in 1996. But
I'll be playing like that once I get it done.
Oooh!
Oooh! iPod Shuffle has come out!! Awesome MP3 player. Mom says if I
work up the cash, I can buy it. Hopefully before my Birthday.
And it even has a waterproof case! Just to fill you in, it's a 1 gig
player that's the size of a pack of gum (seriously), that only weighs.78
ounces ('bout 30 grams, for all you guys in Asia. That's 30 dead
flies.). With the waterproof case, it's only 180 USD. Which is quite a
break, compared to a $250 iPod mini (I can't stand 'em, btw) that's
twice the size, 5 times the weight, and only half the battery life. But
then again, it DOES have 5 times the memory and a screen. But still. So
I'm really hoping. I'm quite sure I'll actually get it this time!
My
LotR Map is going well. I have just bought some red ink cartridges for
the calligraphy pens, so I should have it done inside a month. If I can
find the time. Then, it's off to the frame shop! It's really quite
pretty. I'll see if I can get some pictures up. Otherwise, just go take
a look at the pictures up at my other blog, here.I'll tell you when it's done.
Okay,
that's about it. First post on Xanga, and it went pretty well! Hope to
hear from you all soon, 'specially people that actually HAVE an Xanga
account. *hint hint* See ya all soon! | | |
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