The 20th Maine Regiment was mustered in at Augusta, Maine, for three years' service on August 29, 1862, and were mustered out on July 16, 1865. Of the 1,621 men enrolled in the regiment, 147 were killed or died of wounds, 146 died of disease, and 15 were in Confederate prisons.

They served in the following engagements:

Antietam, MD - September 17, 1862
Shepherdstown Ford, VA - September 19 - 20, 1862
Fredericksburg, VA - December 13, 1862
Chancellorsville, VA - May 1 - 4, 1863
Middleburg, VA - June 17, 1863
Gettysburg, PA - July 1 - 3, 1863
Sharpsburg Pike, MD - July 1863
Rappahannock Station, VA - November 7, 1863
Mine Run, VA - November 26 - December 1, 1863
Wilderness, VA - May 5 - 7, 1864
Spotsylvania, VA - May 7 - 20, 1864
North Anna, VA - May 23 - 27, 1864
Totopotomy, VA - May 26, - 30, 1864
Bethesda Church, VA - May 30 - June 1, 1864
Cold Harbor, VA - May 31 - June 12, 1864
Petersburg, VA - June 1864
Jerusalem Plank Road, VA - June 22 - 23, 1864
Weldon Railroad, VA - August 18 - 21, 1864
Peebles Farm, VA - September 30 - October 2, 1864
Hatchers Run, VA - December 8 - 9, 1864
Quaker Road, VA - March 29, 1865
Gravelly Run, VA - March 29, 1865
Five Forks, VA - March 30 - April 1, 1865
Appomattox, VA - March 29 - April 9, 1865

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914), is best known for his heroic participation in the Battle of Gettysburg. Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain led his 20th Maine Infantry in a desperate bayonet charge down Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. Fearing Chamberlain to be near death from wounds at Petersburg in 1864, General Ulysses Grant gave him a field promotion to Brigadier General. Surviving against all odds, Chamberlain received the Confederate surrender at Appomatox Court House, Virginia, in April 1865. Chamberlain served four terms as Maine's governor and later as president of Bowdoin College.

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