On June 18, 1864, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was leading Union soldiers across an open field toward Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, when a bullet struck him in the hip. The wound nearly killed him, but he refused to let his men see him fall. Using his sword as a support, he jammed it into the ground and continued directing troops while blood and urine poured from his body. The bullet had traveled through his pelvis, clipped his bladder, and broken bones along the way.
Urine leaked into his body, causing rapid sepsis and infection. Chamberlain eventually collapsed from blood loss, and his men carried him from the field believing he was dying. The attack at Petersburg came after several days of Union attempts to capture the city. On June 15, Union forces under Ben Butler had crossed the James River and attacked, but the assault was poorly managed and less successful than it could have been.
By the time Chamberlain’s unit advanced on June 18, roughly 20,000 Confederate soldiers were entrenched and prepared to defend the city. Chamberlain, a Maine native famous for his stand at Little Round Top at Gettysburg, was by then commanding Pennsylvania regiments, including the 121st, 142nd, 143rd, 149th, 150th, and 187th. The men trusted him and were willing to follow him into heavy fire. The day before the fight, Chamberlain reportedly had a premonition that he might not survive.
He passed through his soldiers’ camp in a somber mood, feeling that this could be his last night. The next day, his fears proved real. After hearing that Chamberlain had been wounded and was not expected to live, General Ulysses S. Grant did something he did only once during the Civil War: he issued a field commission promoting Chamberlain to Brigadier General for heroism and conduct under fire.
The promotion was delivered on the spot where Chamberlain was being treated, about three miles from where he had been hit. Doctors initially gave Chamberlain up for dead. His brother Thomas refused to accept that outcome and found two physicians, Dr. Shaw and Dr.
Townsend, who worked through the night on Chamberlain’s wounds. Despite being under morphine and chloroform, Chamberlain reportedly came out of the anesthetic because the pain was so severe. When the doctors stopped, unable to watch him suffer, he told them to keep working, knowing his life depended on it. The doctors’ efforts gave Chamberlain a chance to survive.
By November 1864, he had returned to duty and was back in the saddle, despite the severe damage to his body. He later served at Appomattox, where he received the Confederate surrender. But the wound left lasting damage. Doctors later placed a catheter inside Chamberlain to drain urine while his body tried to heal.
The device was made of silver and had to be removed and reinserted repeatedly, leading to constant infection, fever, delirium, and urosepsis. Eventually, a fistula, an abnormal opening, formed at the base of his private area. Through that opening, urine, blood, and infection drained for the rest of his life. Chamberlain underwent another surgery to try to close the hole, using skin from the perineum to create a flap.
It worked briefly, then failed, leaving the opening permanent. For decades, he had to deal with recurring infections and bladder control problems, and he could only evacuate his bladder through the fistula. The injuries caused other lifelong disabilities. He could no longer ride a horse for long periods, struggled to walk, lost sexual function, and suffered from what historians believe was PTSD.
The pain and the constant infections affected his daily life, his marriage, and his relationships with friends and loved ones. His medical case reportedly contributed to later advances in military medicine, benefiting future generations who required similar treatment. Historians note that despite Chamberlain’s fame for Little Round Top, his Medal of Honor citation does not reflect the scale of suffering he endured for the following fifty years. He lived with the consequences of his Petersburg wound for the rest of his life, and historians have described him as one of the last Civil War soldiers to die as a result of wounds received in combat.
The location where Chamberlain was wounded was not formally marked for many years. A researcher named Dennis Rasbach identified the likely site using landmarks Chamberlain himself described, including a railroad cut, a swampy area, and an ice house. The suggested location sits near the Taylor House, where an ice house existed, matching Chamberlain’s account. The sign marking the spot now stands at a busy intersection in Petersburg, in front of an Econolodge, next to the interstate.
The Battle of Petersburg on June 18 resulted in heavy Union casualties. Although the attack failed to break through Confederate lines, it forced Robert E. Lee to shift troops south to protect the city, setting off a long siege. Lee understood that the war had changed direction and that time was running out.
The fighting around Petersburg, including the later Battle of the Crater, would continue for months, and the city became a central battleground in the final chapter of the Civil War. Chamberlain survived that day and lived until 1914, dying more than five decades after he was wounded on the fields outside Petersburg.