Power Of Chamberlain's Speech In The Army

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Speches are very important things. They can help us meet our leaders and hear what they have to say in person. Whether it is something small, or something big like the big speech Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain decided he had to give at his Maine regiment. A phenomenal amount of mutineers arrived at Chamberlain’s camp, 120 to be exact. Why were all of these men there? They had signed a 3 year contract to serve in the army, but when their peers got to leave and their unit was disbanded, they still had 1 year left to serve. These soldiers were forced under guard to go to the Maine regiment, led by Chamberlain. All of them refused to fight, until the colonel delivered a meaningful and cordial speech about what they were fighting for and why they should fight. The power of Chamberlain’s immense speech …show more content…

One of the emotions is being nervous when he was talking. Chamberlain said, “I’ve been ordered to take you men with me, I’m told if you don’t come I can shoot you” (Gettysburg). This shows he is nervous when he is talking. It was shown when he chuckled in the middle of saying it as if he felt nervous and if they refused to fight, they wouldn’t have a lot of men and would have nothing to do with the new mutineers. Another emotion that the Colonel felt was sadness. When Chamberlain said, “What we are fighting for, in the end, we’re fighting for each other” (Gettysburg), he quit talking for a minute, and looked to the ground, trying to enshroud the tears in his eyes. He also kept turning away from the mutineers while talking. Also, some of the emotions the mutineers portrayed showed they were felt inspired. As Chamberlain started saying,“Many came because it was the right thing to do” (Gettysburg), some of the mutineers started going from a sad and mournful face to having a smile. While others started to actually listening intently to what he was