For his courage and leadership, Chamberlain, a volunteer college professor, received the Medal of Honor (America’s highest medal for valor).
“Hold the ground at all hazards!” So, Colonel Strong Vincent told Colonel Joshua Chamberlain on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, as they rushed up Little Round Top just minutes before Confederate troops arrived and attacked. This has become known as the “Joshua Chamberlain order,” when a commander is told by his superior that he must hold a piece of ground no matter the cost (until death, if need be). Every year, standing with Army War College students at Little Round Top looking down through the trees where Chamberlain and his men stood and fought, we relive that moment.
The Battle of Gettysburg took place on July 1-3, 1863, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania and met the Union Army of the Potomac. Lee’s forces had been using the Appalachian Mountains to shield them as they moved toward Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg, Meanwhile, newly appointed Union Major General George Meade had to move his Army of the Potomac up from the Rappahannock River in Virginia, leading to their encounter at a town neither had considered particularly significant until that fateful July. The first day of battle left the Union forces along Cemetery Ridge just south of Gettysburg in a fishhook configuration from Culp’s Hill in the north to Little Round Top in the south. The Confederates adopted a similar position about a mile to the west on Seminary Ridge. On July 2, Lee sent his First Corps to attack the southern flank of the Union position, Little Round Top, which at that moment was undefended. The Union V Corps had just arrived and was immediately ordered to Little Round Top. Colonel Strong Vincent, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division, ordered his four regiments into line along the crest of the hill. He assigned Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine the end of the line and, according to the National Park monument at the location, that was when he told Chamberlain, “To hold the ground at all hazards.” Confederate units from Alabama and Texas attacked up the hill into the 20th Maine, causing a fierce fight. When the 20th Maine ran out of ammunition, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge down the hill, which broke the Confederate attack. For his courage and leadership, Chamberlain, a college professor before receiving his volunteer commission, received the Medal of Honor (America’s highest medal for valor).
Gettysburg has taught us that Chamberlain’s story necessitates a kind of radical imagination. As colonels and (later) generals, the chance for our twenty-first century students to give, let alone receive such an order is infinitesimally remote, except perhaps in a major war when the fate of the country itself is at stake (certainly World War II had a number of moments like these, for people on all sides). Few leaders face desperate conventional combat in today’s world where such an order might be warranted. Yet there is one officer in the last 25 years at the U.S. Army War College who was in high-intensity combat, survived, and did receive the “Joshua Chamberlain order.” What’s more, we had occasion to teach this student and talk with him at the War College, at Walter Reed Hospital, and in his home country about that moment. These discussions taught us a lot about leadership and courage. Here is his story.
Colonel Ihor Hordiichuk was the Ukrainian officer in the Army War College class of 2009—where, among other things, he had been starting center forward on the champion Jim Thorpe Sports Day soccer team coached by Larry Goodson. Like many international fellows, he returned to his home country and moved into senior military jobs. As a Special Forces officer, he was used to dangerous missions, but when Russia invaded in 2014 he found himself on the staff of the general responsible for defending Donetsk, a key province in the Donbass, the region of eastern Ukraine that adjoins Russia and would become, then and now, the center of Russia’s invasion. In July 2014 Russia followed its “little green men” invasion of Crimea with attacks on eastern Ukraine. As Russia and Russian-speaking proxies in the region pushed forward, Ukrainian national forces were about to be overrun.
In 2019 Larry Goodson went to Kyiv to learn more about Russia’s hybrid war approach in the period between the initial Russian attack in early 2014 and the later war that began in early 2022. While there, he met with Ihor Hordiichuk, now a major general. Ihor is now a “true symbol of new Ukraine,” according to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, for his actions in the Battle for the Height of Savur-Mohyla in Eastern Donetsk during August 2014, the same area in which Malaysian Airlines 17 was shot down in July 2014. Savur-Mohyla sits on the Donetsk Ridge and is operationally significant, as it gives visibility for some 40 kms. Not surprisingly, it was the site of a significant World War II battle between the Germans and the Soviets. Ihor, then a Special Forces colonel known as “Sumrak” (Twilight), was told to take and hold the hill and direct artillery fire from that position.
The Russian-led forces relentlessly attacked the hill until August 24, when they took all the territory around the hill, forcing Ukrainian national forces to withdraw.
Taking the hill was challenging, as it was occupied by pro-Russian insurgent forces that supported the creation of a Donetsk People’s Republic and its annexation by Russia. Those forces were supported by Russian troops and armored vehicles and were calling in artillery rounds on nearby towns. Nonetheless, Ihor and a handful of men took control of the high point on August 12 and began adjusting artillery fire under persistent Russian attacks. They held on for six days until they finally received reinforcements. On August 18, Colonel Petro Potekhin led a force of 25 soldiers from the 25th Airborne Brigade and 4th company of the 42nd Battalion along with several artillery spotters to join them at the observation point. They were all volunteers. The Russian-led forces relentlessly attacked the hill until August 24, when they took all the territory around the hill, forcing Ukrainian national forces to withdraw. Grievously wounded in the neck and occipital region of the brain (below his helmet) during the effort to get away with his remaining men, Ihor was left on the battlefield to die by the Russian-led forces. He was picked up a day or two later by a Red Cross unit and eventually came to Walter Reed Hospital for a long bout of treatment and therapy.
While Ihor was at Walter Reed recovering, Jim Gordon tried to get in to see him but could only talk to him by phone. Ihor was, as always, very respectful and reserved. This is the same way he conducted himself as a student. In 2008 he was reluctant to speak because of his English language skills. As we know now, sometimes the most amazing leaders do not show themselves until there is an opportunity. The quiet reserved person Larry and Jim saw as a student was a warrior waiting for an opportunity to emerge. This moment came to him on the battlefield, as it did for Joshua Chamberlain.
In 2019 Ihor and his former coach Larry Goodson met for lunch together in downtown Kyiv. Ihor slowly got to his feet and gave his old coach a hug. He insisted that he was getting better, noting that he could walk a few steps now without his cane. His eyes were bright, his mind was sharp, and he spoke proudly of success in his job at that time as commandant of Ivan Bohun Kyiv Military Lyceum. He sent his regards to his old instructors and his best wishes to all in Carlisle. In a quiet moment when everyone else had left our private room, Larry asked Ihor about leadership and courage and specifically asked him about how he inspired his men when he realized he had been given the “Joshua Chamberlain order” to hold his position at all costs. This is what he said:
“This was the hardest day in my life. How could I inspire my men? I told them, ‘If we can hold one hour, two hours, three hours [to give Ukrainian regulars and volunteers time to get into position], our country can survive.’” One of the other survivors of the battle said this about Ihor: “Hordiichuk told us that we are paratroopers, so we have to stand to the end. The enemy is coming, all who are fighting are on the front, and only cowards are running to the rear. We should not expect any help—we are obliged to do our duty. He is a man of steel.”
After Ihor’s remarkable survival, he was awarded the Hero of Ukraine Order of the Golden Star and promoted, making him the only War College graduate in this century to receive their nation’s highest award for valor after graduating. He cannot serve now as a frontline soldier but instead serves as a major general and Deputy Commandant of the National Defense University of Ukraine. He is a hero to the Ukrainian people, and a leader, above all else. So, this is the story of the only man we know who received the “Joshua Chamberlain order.” Born in nationalism, this is a story of courage and an unflinching commitment to duty. Share the story of Ihor Hordiichuk—Twilight, a man of steel, and U.S. Army War College Class of 2009—with your friends.
Larry P. Goodson serves as Professor of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Army War College. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. He has taught at the Department of National Security and Strategy at the War College since 2002, while also serving with U.S. Central Command multiple times since 9/11. He is the author of many articles and the book Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban (University of Washington Press, 2001).
Jim Gordon, Ed.D., is a retired Army colonel and the former course director, Theater Strategy and Campaigning, in the Department of Military Strategy Planning and Operations, as well as a graduate of the AY96 Resident Course at the U.S. Army War College.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense.
Photo Description: (L) Lieutenant General Ihor Hordiichuk, 2019 and (R) Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain, 1865.
Photo Credit: (L) Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection and (R) Emmanuel Degrand, both via wikimedia.org