Ambrose Burnside and Talk:Johann Schweighäuser: Difference between pages

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{{1911 talk}}

{{Infobox Military Person

|name=Ambrose Burnside

{{WPBiography

|lived=[[May 23]] [[1824]] – [[September 13]] [[1881]]

|living=no

|placeofbirth=[[Liberty, Indiana]]

|class=

|placeofdeath=

|priority=

|image=[[Image:Ambrose Everett Burnside.jpg|240px]]

|caption=Portrait of Ambrose Burnside by [[Mathew Brady]], ca. 1862

|nickname=

|allegiance=[[United States]]

|serviceyears=

|rank=[[General]]

|commands=[[Army of the Potomac]]

|unit=

|battles=[[Mexican-American War]]<br>[[American Civil War]]<br>-[[Battle of Fredericksburg]]

|awards=

|laterwork=

}}

'''Ambrose Everett Burnside''' ([[May 23]] [[1824]] &ndash; [[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]].

Burnside commanded the [[North Carolina]] Expeditionary Corps, which formed the nucleus for his future [[IX Corps (ACW)|IX Corps]], and the Department of North Carolina, from September 1861 until July 1862. For his successes at [[Battle of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island]] and [[Battle of New Bern|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&mdash;because of his loyalty to McClellan and because he understood his own lack of military experience&mdash;he detached part of his corps in support of [[John Pope (military officer)|John Pope's]] [[Army of Virginia]] in the [[Northern Virginia Campaign]]. Again offered command following the debacle of [[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Bull Run]] in that campaign Burnside again declined.

===Antietam===

Burnside was given command of the "Right Wing" of the Army of the Potomac (the [[I Corps (ACW)|I]] and IX Corps) during the [[Maryland Campaign]]. He fought at [[Battle of South Mountain|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&mdash;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 States Army|Confederate]] division to come up from [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]] and repulse the Union breakthrough.

===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]], 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 allowed [[Robert E. Lee]] to concentrate along Marye's Heights just west of town and easily repulse the Union attacks. (The delays were because of poor planning in marshaling pontoon bridges for crossing the [[Rappahannock River]] and his own reluctance to deploy portions of his army across fording points long before Lee arrived in force.) 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 and by the enormous casualties of his repeated, futile frontal assaults, Burnside declared that he himself would lead an assault by his old corps. His corps commanders talked him 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.

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 (American Civil War)|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]].

===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 (politics)|copperhead]]s 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 [[Battle of Chattanooga III|Chattanooga]], troops under [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] marched to Burnside's aid, but the siege had already been lifted after the Confederate defeat at the [[Battle of Fort Sanders]].

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.)

Burnside fought at the [[Battle of the Wilderness|Wilderness]] and [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|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 [[Battle of Cold Harbor|Cold Harbor]], he took his place in the siege lines at [[Siege of Petersburg|Petersburg]].

===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 [[African-American|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]].

==Post-bellum career==

[[Image:Ambrose Burnside - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|Postbellum portrait by [[Mathew Brady]] or [[Levin C. Handy]]]]

After his resignation, Burnside was employed in numerous railroad and industrial directorships, including the presidencies of the Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad, the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad, and the Rhode Locomotive Works. He was elected to three one-year terms as [[List of Governors of Rhode Island|Governor of Rhode Island]] (1866&ndash;68). He was president of the veterans' association, the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR). And at its inception in 1871, the [[National Rifle Association]] chose him as their first president. <ref>[http://www.nrahq.org/history.asp NRA History]</ref>

During a visit to [[Europe]] in 1870, Burnside attempted to mediate between the French and the Germans in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], 1870&ndash;71. In 1874 he was elected a [[U.S. Senator]] from Rhode Island and served until his death at [[Bristol, Rhode Island]]. During that time, Burnside, who had been a Democrat before the war, served as a Republican, playing a prominent role in military affairs as well as foreign ones. He is buried in [[Swan Point Cemetery]], [[Providence, Rhode Island]].

==In popular media==

Burnside was portrayed on film in [[Ronald F. Maxwell]]'s ''[[Gods and Generals]]'' (2003), which deals in large part with the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]], by [[Alex Hyde-White]].

==Assessment==

Personally, Burnside was always very popular&mdash;both in the army and in politics&mdash;but he was out of his depth as a senior army commander, a fact no one knew better than Burnside himself. Knowing his capabilities, he twice refused command of the Army of the Potomac until finally being forced under orders to accept it. And despite bitter disappointments in high command, he willingly and loyally served his country in lesser roles for the remainder of the war.

==Burnside's sideburns==

Burnside was noted for his unusual [[facial hair]], joining strips of hair in front of his ears to his mustache, but with chin clean-shaven; the word ''burnsides'' was coined to describe this style. The syllables were later reversed to give ''[[sideburns]]''.

==References==

{{Wikisource1911Enc|Burnside, Ambrose Everett}}

* Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J.: ''Civil War High Commands'', Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

* [http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F06.html SNPP.com]

==Notes==

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==External links==

*[http://quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=81 Burnside's grave]

{{start box}}

{{succession box|title=[[Army of the Potomac|Commander of the Army of the Potomac]]|before=[[George B. McClellan]]|after=[[Joseph Hooker]]|years=1862&ndash;1863}}

{{U.S. Senator box

| state= Rhode Island

| class=1

| alongside=[[Henry B. Anthony]]

| before=[[William Sprague (1830-1915)|William Sprague]]|

| after=[[Nelson W. Aldrich]]|

| years=1875&ndash;1881|}}

{{end box}}

{{RIGovernors}}

[[Category:1824 births|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:1881 deaths|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:Governors of Rhode Island|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:Gun politics|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:National Rifle Association members|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:People of Rhode Island in the American Civil War|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:Union Army generals|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:United States Senators from Rhode Island|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:United States Army generals|Burnside, Ambrose]]

[[Category:West Point graduates|Burnside, Ambrose]]

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