Generals in Blue: Burnside

Ambrose E. Burnside

repeated demands for more men, material, and time, Lincoln removed him and offered the Army of the Potomac to Burnside. Seeming to recognize his own limitations as well as anyone (and much better than the president), Burnside accepted command of the army with great reluctance. With Lincoln's urging, he launched two of the most foolish military operations of the war: Fredericksburg* in December 1862 and the infamous "Mud March" the following month. Burnside was sent to command the Department of Ohio in 1863. He led an advance into Tennessee that was stopped at Knoxville by the Confederate forces of Gen. James Longstreet. Burnside doggedly held out, besieged by Longstreet, until Gen. Sherman brought relief. He returned to Virginia and fought in Grant's Wilderness campaign in 1864. He seemed overly cautious, perhaps because of the Fredericksburg debacle, and Grant fired him after one last fiasco known as the Battle of the Crater during the siege of Petersburg. He resigned from the army in April 1865 and led a successful postwar life, including governor of Rhode Island (elected to three terms) and U. S. Senator. He died in 1881. One of his more curious legacies is the term "sideburns."

*Things went from bad to worse at Fredericksburg when the pontoon bridges Burnside ordered to cross the Rappahannock arrived late, then a winter storm hit, and he lost the initiative. With Longstreet's corps on the left and Jackson's corps on the right, Lee had plenty of time to turn Fredericksburg into a slaughtering ground for the Army of the Potomac. (It was here that Lee uttered his famous observation that it is well that war is so terrible, otherwise generals might grow too fond of it.)

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A native of Indiana, Burnside graduated from West Point in 1847 and mostly performed garrison duty in the Southwest, including service in the Mexican War, until he resigned his commission in 1853. He invented and manufactured a breech-loading carbine but the army was disinterested at that time because of conservative attachment to the traditional musket. He served as a major general in the Rhode Island militia and briefly worked for George McClellan's railroad. When the war broke out in 1861 he organized the 1st Rhode Island Infantry. He led a brigade at Bull Run and was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers a month later. He led a successful expedition against the North Carolina coast and was promoted to major general. At Antietam, Burnside's slowness in attacking the Confederate position allowed time for A. P. Hill to arrive with reinforcements, possibly averting disaster. Despite this failure, Burnside had the reputation of being a fighting general who handled his men well, and Lincoln thought highly of him. But Burnside was a good subordinate general who proved to be an incompetent commander [Williams, Lincoln and his Generals].) Frustrated by McClellan's lack of initiative and

© 2003 David C. Hanson, HIS 269 - Civil War and Reconstruction, Virginia W. Community College

Ambrose E. Burnside
	repeated demands for more men, material, and time, Lincoln removed him and offered the Army of the Potomac to Burnside. Seeming to recognize his own limitations as well as anyone (and much better than the president), Burnside accepted command of the army with great reluctance. With Lincoln's urging, he launched two of the most foolish military operations of the war: Fredericksburg* in December 1862 and the infamous "Mud March" the following month. Burnside was sent to command the Department of Ohio in 1863. He led an advance into Tennessee that was stopped at Knoxville by the Confederate forces of Gen. James Longstreet. Burnside doggedly held out, besieged by Longstreet, until Gen. Sherman brought relief. He returned to Virginia and fought in Grant's Wilderness campaign in 1864. He seemed overly cautious, perhaps because of the Fredericksburg debacle, and Grant fired him after one last fiasco known as the Battle of the Crater during the siege of Petersburg. He resigned from the army in April 1865 and led a successful postwar life, including governor of Rhode Island (elected to three terms) and U. S. Senator. He died in 1881. One of his more curious legacies is the term "sideburns." *Things went from bad to worse at Fredericksburg when the pontoon bridges Burnside ordered to cross the Rappahannock arrived late, then a winter storm hit, and he lost the initiative. With Longstreet's corps on the left and Jackson's corps on the right, Lee had plenty of time to turn Fredericksburg into a slaughtering ground for the Army of the Potomac. (It was here that Lee uttered his famous observation that it is well that war is so terrible, otherwise generals might grow too fond of it.) Generals >
A native of Indiana, Burnside graduated from West Point in 1847 and mostly performed garrison duty in the Southwest, including service in the Mexican War, until he resigned his commission in 1853. He invented and manufactured a breech-loading carbine but the army was disinterested at that time because of conservative attachment to the traditional musket. He served as a major general in the Rhode Island militia and briefly worked for George McClellan's railroad. When the war broke out in 1861 he organized the 1st Rhode Island Infantry. He led a brigade at Bull Run and was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers a month later. He led a successful expedition against the North Carolina coast and was promoted to major general. At Antietam, Burnside's slowness in attacking the Confederate position allowed time for A. P. Hill to arrive with reinforcements, possibly averting disaster. Despite this failure, Burnside had the reputation of being a fighting general who handled his men well, and Lincoln thought highly of him. But Burnside was a good subordinate general who proved to be an incompetent commander [Williams, Lincoln and his Generals].) Frustrated by McClellan's lack of initiative and