Ambrose Burnside

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23,1824 – September 13, 1881) was a railroad executive, an industrialist, and a politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator. As a Union Army general in the American Civil War, he was defeated in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg,

Civil War

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Burnside was a brigadier general in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised a regiment, the 1st Rhode Island, and was appointed its colonel on May 2, 1861. Within a month he ascended to brigade command in the Department of Northeast Virginia. He commanded the brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run and was promoted to brigadier general on August 6.

Related Topics:
Brigadier general - Colonel - May 2 - 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run - August 6

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Burnside commanded the North Carolina Expeditionary Corps, which formed the nucleus for his future IX Corps, and the Department of North Carolina, from September, 1861, until July, 1862. For his successes at Roanoke Island and New Bern he was promoted to major general on March 18. In July his forces were transported north to Newport News, Virginia, and became the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Following George B. McClellan's failure in the Peninsula Campaign, Burnside was offered command of the Army of the Potomac. Refusing this opportunity, in part due to his loyalty to McClellan (and also because he understood his own lack of military experience), he detached part of his corps in support of John Pope's Army of Virginia in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Again offered command following the debacle of Second Bull Run in that campaign, Burnside again declined.

Related Topics:
North Carolina - IX Corps - 1862 - Roanoke Island - New Bern - Major general - March 18 - July - Newport News, Virginia - Army of the Potomac - Peninsula Campaign - John Pope's - Army of Virginia - Northern Virginia Campaign - Second Bull Run

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Antietam

Burnside was given command of the ?Right Wing? of the Army of the Potomac (the I and IX Corps) during the Maryland Campaign. He fought at South Mountain and then at the Battle of Antietam, where his two corps were placed on opposite ends of the Union battle line. He nonetheless remained in wing command over the IX Corps—a cumbersome arrangement that may explain his slowness in attacking and crossing what is now called "Burnside Bridge". The delay allowed A.P. Hill's Confederate division to come up from Harpers Ferry and repulse the Union breakthrough.

Related Topics:
I - Maryland Campaign - South Mountain - Battle of Antietam - A.P. Hill - Confederate - Harpers Ferry

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Fredericksburg

McClellan was removed after failing to pursue Lee's retreat from Antietam and Burnside was assigned to command the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. He reluctantly obeyed this order, the third such in his brief career. President Abraham Lincoln pressured Burnside to take aggressive action and on November 14, 1862, approved his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. This plan led to a humiliating and costly Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13. His advance upon Fredericksburg was rapid, but later delays, due to poor planning in marshaling pontoon bridges for crossing the Rappahannock River, allowed Robert E. Lee to concentrate along Marye's Heights just west of town and easily repulse the Union attacks. Assaults south of town, which were supposed to be the main avenue of attack, were also mismanaged and initial Union breakthroughs went unsupported. Upset by the failure of his plan, Burnside declared that he himself would lead an assault by his old corps. He was talked out of it, but relations between the commander and his subordinates were strained. Accepting full blame, he offered to retire from the U.S. Army, but this was refused.

Related Topics:
November 7 - 1862 - Abraham Lincoln - November 14 - Confederate - Richmond, Virginia - Battle of Fredericksburg - December 13 - Rappahannock River - Robert E. Lee - U.S. Army

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In January, 1863, Burnside launched a second offensive against Lee, but it bogged down in winter rains before it accomplished anything and has been derisively called the Mud March. In its wake he asked that several officers be relieved of duty and court-martialed; he also offered to resign. Lincoln chose the latter option on January 26 and replaced him with Joseph Hooker.

Related Topics:
January - 1863 - Mud March - January 26 - Joseph Hooker

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Tennessee and the Overland Campaign

Lincoln was unwilling to lose Burnside from the Army and assigned him to command the Department of the Ohio and his old IX Corps. Here he was forced to deal with copperheads such as Clement Vallandigham and Confederate raiders such as John Hunt Morgan. He advanced to Knoxville, Tennessee, but after the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, Burnside found the tables turned and he was besieged in Knoxville by James Longstreet. After Braxton Bragg's defeat by Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga, troops under William Tecumseh Sherman marched to Burnside's aid and lifted the siege.

Related Topics:
Copperhead - Clement Vallandigham - John Hunt Morgan - Knoxville, Tennessee - Battle of Chickamauga - James Longstreet - Braxton Bragg - Ulysses S. Grant - Chattanooga - William Tecumseh Sherman

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Burnside was then ordered to take the IX Corps back to Virginia, where he fought in the Overland Campaign directly under Grant; his corps was not assigned initially to the Army of the Potomac because he outranked its commander, Major General George G. Meade, who had been a division commander under Burnside at Fredericksburg. (This cumbersome arrangement was rectified during the Battle of North Anna on May 25, 1864, when Burnside agreed to waive his precedence of rank and was placed under Meade's direct command.)

Related Topics:
Overland Campaign - George G. Meade - Battle of North Anna - May 25 - 1864

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Burnside fought at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, where he performed in a mediocre manner, appearing reluctant to commit his troops to frontal assaults after the Fredericksburg experience. After North Anna and Cold Harbor he took his place in the siege lines at Petersburg.

Related Topics:
Wilderness - Spotsylvania Court House - Cold Harbor - Petersburg

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The Crater

In July, 1864, Burnside agreed to a plan suggested by a regiment of Pennsylvania coal miners in his corps: dig a mine under a fort in the Confederate entrenchments and ignite explosives there. The fort was destroyed and many rebels died in what is known as the Battle of the Crater. But because of interference from Meade, Burnside was ordered not to use his division of black troops (specially trained for this mission) and had to use untrained white troops instead. Those troops, badly led by their commanders, entered the crater itself instead of going around it, and were subjected to murderous fire from Confederates around the rim, resulting in high casualties. Burnside received the blame for this fiasco and he was sent on leave and never recalled. He finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865.

Related Topics:
July - 1864 - Pennsylvania - Battle of the Crater - Black - April 15 - 1865

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