Editing Ambrose Burnside (section)

==Postbellum career==
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, the [[Cairo and Vincennes Railroad]], and the [[Rhode Island Locomotive Works]].{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

He was elected to three one-year terms as [[List of Governors of Rhode Island|Governor of Rhode Island]], serving from May 29, 1866, to May 25, 1869.  He was nominated by the Republican Party to be their candidate for governor in March 1866, and Burnside was elected governor in a landslide on April 4, 1866. This began Burnside's political career as a Republican, as he had been a Democrat before the war.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rhode Island Republicans nominate Union General Ambrose Burnside for governor. |website=House Divided|url=http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46102|access-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614163755/http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46102|archive-date=June 14, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Burnside was a Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]], a military society of Union officers and their descendants, and served as the Junior Vice Commander of the Massachusetts Commandery in 1869. He was commander-in-chief of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR) veterans' association from 1871 to 1872, and also served as the Commander of the Department of Rhode Island of the GAR.<ref name=E>Eicher, pp. 155–56.</ref> At its inception in 1871, the [[National Rifle Association of America]] chose him as its first president.<ref>{{cite news |title=Timeline of the NRA |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/timeline-of-the-nra/2013/01/12/351bcb26-5b9c-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113055138/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/timeline-of-the-nra/2013/01/12/351bcb26-5b9c-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html |archive-date=Jan 13, 2013 |language=en-us |date=Jan 12, 2013 |quote=1871: The NRA is created to improve the marksmanship of soldiers. The first president, Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, had seen too many Union soldiers who couldn’t shoot straight. |url-status=live}}</ref>

During a visit to Europe in 1870, Burnside attempted to mediate between the French and the Germans in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. He was registered at the offices of [[Morgan, Harjes & Co.|Drexel, Harjes & Co.]], Geneva, week ending November 5, 1870.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1870/12/14/archives/americans-in-london.html "Americans in London"]. New York Times, December 14, 1870, p. 6c, last line.</ref> Drexel Harjes was a major lender to the new French government after the war, helping it to repay its massive [[war reparations]].

In 1876 Burnside was elected as commander of the New England Battalion of the [[Centennial Legion]], the title of a collection of 13 militia units from the original 13 states, which participated in the parade in Philadelphia on July 4, 1876, to mark the centennial of the signing of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]].<ref>''New York Times'' March 16, 1876.</ref>

In 1874 Burnside was elected by the Rhode Island Senate as a [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from Rhode Island, was re-elected in 1880, and served until his death in 1881. Burnside continued his association with the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], playing a prominent role in military affairs as well as serving as chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Foreign Relations Committee]] in 1881.<ref name=WE>Wilson, np.; Eicher, p. 156.</ref>