Editing Ambrose Burnside (section)

==Civil War==
[[File:Ambrose Burnside2.jpg|thumb|left|General Ambrose Burnside]]

===First Bull Run===
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Burnside was a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised the [[1st Rhode Island Infantry|1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment]], and was appointed its colonel on May 2, 1861.<ref>[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/76035386 Combined Military Service Record]</ref> Two companies of this regiment were then armed with Burnside carbines.

Within a month, he ascended to brigade command in the Department of northeast Virginia. He commanded the brigade without distinction at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]] in July and took over division command temporarily for wounded Brig. Gen. [[David Hunter]]. His 90-day regiment was mustered out of service on August 2; he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers on August 6 and was assigned to train provisional brigades in the [[Army of the Potomac]].<ref name=ESWW/>
[[File:Burnside with 1stRI.jpg|thumb|Burnside (seated, center) and officers of the 1st Rhode Island at Camp Sprague, Rhode Island, 1861]]

===North Carolina===
Burnside commanded the Coast Division or [[Burnside's North Carolina Expedition|North Carolina Expeditionary Force]] from September 1861 until July 1862, three brigades assembled in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], which formed the nucleus for his future [[IX Corps (Union Army)|IX Corps]]. He conducted a successful [[amphibious warfare|amphibious]] campaign that closed more than 80% of the North Carolina sea coast to [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] shipping for the remainder of the war. This included the [[Battle of Elizabeth City]], fought on February 10, 1862, on the [[Pasquotank River]] near [[Elizabeth City, North Carolina]].{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The participants were vessels of the [[United States Navy]]'s [[Union blockade|North Atlantic Blockading Squadron]] opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy's [[Mosquito Fleet]]; the latter were supported by a shore-based battery of four guns at Cobb's Point (now called Cobb Point) near the southeastern border of the town. The battle was a part of the campaign in North Carolina that was led by Burnside and known as the [[Burnside Expedition]]. The result was a Union victory, with Elizabeth City and its nearby waters in their possession and the Confederate fleet captured, sunk, or dispersed.<ref name=Mierka>Mierka, np.</ref>

Burnside was promoted to [[Major general (United States)|major general]] of volunteers on March 18, 1862, in recognition of his successes at the battles of [[Battle of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island]] and [[Battle of New Bern (1862)|New Bern]], the first significant Union victories in the [[Eastern Theater of the American Civil War|Eastern Theater]]. In July, his forces were transported north to [[Newport News, Virginia]], and became the IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac.<ref name=ESWW/>

Burnside was offered command of the Army of the Potomac following Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's failure in the [[Peninsula Campaign]].<ref>Marvel, pp. 99–100.</ref> He refused this opportunity because of his loyalty to McClellan and the fact that he understood his own lack of military experience, and detached part of his corps in support of Maj. Gen. [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]]'s [[Army of Virginia]] in the [[Northern Virginia Campaign]]. He received telegrams at this time from Maj. Gen. [[Fitz John Porter]] which were extremely critical of Pope's abilities as a commander, and he forwarded on to his superiors in concurrence. This episode later played a significant role in [[Court-martial of Fitz John Porter|Porter's court-martial]], in which Burnside appeared as a witness.<ref>Marvel, pp. 209–10.</ref>

Burnside again declined command following Pope's debacle at [[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Bull Run]].<ref name=SW>Sauers, pp. 327–28; Wilson, np.</ref>

===Antietam===
[[File:Burnside's Bridge, Sharpsburg, MD.jpg|thumb|[[Burnside's Bridge]] at Antietam in 2023]]
Burnside was given command of the Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac (the [[I Corps (Union Army)|I Corps]] and his own IX Corps) at the start of the [[Maryland Campaign]] for the [[Battle of South Mountain]], but McClellan separated the two corps at the [[Battle of Antietam]], placing them on opposite ends of the Union battle line and returning Burnside to command of just the IX Corps. Burnside implicitly refused to give up his authority and acted as though the corps commander was first Maj. Gen. [[Jesse L. Reno]] (killed at South Mountain) and then Brig. Gen. [[Jacob Dolson Cox|Jacob D. Cox]], funneling orders through them to the corps. This cumbersome arrangement contributed to his slowness in attacking and crossing what is now called [[Burnside's Bridge]] on the southern flank of the Union line.<ref>Bailey, pp. 120–21.</ref>

Burnside did not perform an adequate reconnaissance of the area, and he did not take advantage of several easy fording sites out of range of the enemy; his troops were forced into repeated assaults across the narrow bridge, which was dominated by Confederate sharpshooters on the high ground. By noon, McClellan was losing patience. He sent a succession of couriers to motivate Burnside to move forward, ordering one aide, "Tell him if it costs 10,000 men he must go now." He further increased the pressure by sending his inspector general to confront Burnside, who reacted indignantly: "McClellan appears to think I am not trying my best to carry this bridge; you are the third or fourth one who has been to me this morning with similar orders."<ref>Sears, pp. 264–65.</ref> The IX Corps eventually broke through, but the delay allowed Maj. Gen. [[A. P. Hill]]'s [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] division to come up from [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]] and repulse the Union breakthrough. McClellan refused Burnside's requests for reinforcements, and the battle ended in a tactical stalemate.<ref>Bailey, pp. 126–39.</ref>

===Fredericksburg===
{{Main|Battle of Fredericksburg}}
[[File:AmbroseBurnsideonMount1862.jpg|thumb|Union General Ambrose Burnside, 1862]]

After McClellan failed to pursue General [[Robert E. Lee]]'s retreat from [[Antietam]], Lincoln ordered McClellan's removal on November 5, 1862, and selected Burnside to replace him on November 7, 1862. Burnside reluctantly obeyed this order, the third such in his brief career, in part because the courier told him that, if he refused it, the command would go instead to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, whom Burnside 
disliked. Burnside assumed charge of the Army of the Potomac in a change of command ceremony at the farm of Julia Claggett in [[New Baltimore, Virginia]].<ref name=claggett>{{cite web |author1=Department of the Treasury. Office of the First Comptroller |title=Approved Claim Files from Prince William County, Virginia: Claggett, Julia F, Claim No. 41668 |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/59886439 |website=Library of Congress |publisher=Southern Claims Commission |access-date=March 9, 2021 |page=35 |date=September 5, 1876 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415050406/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/59886439 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Sears, ''Young Napoleon'', pp. 238–41</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=George McClellan - Biography, Civil War & Importance |url=https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/george-b-mcclellan |website=History.com |date=June 10, 2019 |access-date=25 April 2023 |language=en}}</ref> McClellan visited troops to bid them farewell. Columbia Claggett, Julia Claggett's daughter-in-law, testified after the war that a "parade and transfer of the Army to Gen. Burnside took place on our farm in front of our house in a change of command ceremony at New Baltimore, Virginia on November 9, 1862."<ref name=commish>{{cite web |author1=Department of the Treasury. Office of the First Comptroller |title=Approved Claim Files from Prince William County, Virginia: Claggett, Julia F, Claim No. 41668 |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/59886439 |website=Library of Congress |publisher=Southern Claims Commission |access-date=March 9, 2021 |page=35 |date=September 5, 1876 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415050406/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/59886439 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=claggett/>

President Abraham Lincoln pressured Burnside to take aggressive action and approved his plan on November 14 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 the attack was delayed when the engineers were slow to marshal pontoon bridges for crossing the [[Rappahannock River]], as well as his own reluctance to deploy portions of his army across fording points. This allowed Gen. Lee to concentrate along Marye's Heights just west of town and easily repulse the Union attacks.

Assaults south of town were also mismanaged, which were supposed to be the main avenue of attack, and initial Union breakthroughs went unsupported. Burnside was upset by the failure of his plan and by the enormous casualties of his repeated, futile frontal assaults, and declared that he would personally lead an assault by the IX corps. His corps commanders talked him out of it, but relations were strained between the general and his subordinates. Accepting full blame, he offered to retire from the U.S. Army, but this was refused. Burnside's detractors labeled him the "Butcher of Fredericksburg".<ref>William Palmer Hopkins, ''The Seventh Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers in the Civil War 1862–1865''. Providence, RI: The Providence Press, 1903, p. 56.</ref>

In January 1863, Burnside launched a second offensive against Lee, but it bogged down in winter rains before anything was accomplished, and has derisively been called the [[Mud March (American Civil War)|Mud March]]. In its wake, he asked that several openly insubordinate officers be relieved of duty and [[court-martial]]ed; he also offered to resign. Lincoln quickly accepted the latter option, and on January 26 replaced Burnside with Maj. Gen. [[Joseph Hooker]], one of the officers who had conspired against him.<ref name=WWS>Wilson, np.; Warner, p. 58; Sauers, p. 328.</ref>

===East Tennessee===
[[File:Ambrose Burnside in Uniform.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Engraving of General Burnside in full dress uniform]]
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}
Burnside offered to resign his commission altogether but Lincoln declined, stating that there could still be a place for him in the army. Thus, he was placed back at the head of the IX Corps and sent to command the Department of the Ohio, encompassing the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. This was a quiet area with little activity, and the President reasoned that Burnside could not get himself into too much trouble there. However, antiwar sentiment was riding high in the Western states as they had traditionally carried on a great deal of commerce with the South, and there was little in the way of abolitionist sentiment there or a desire to fight for the purpose of ending slavery. Burnside was thoroughly disturbed by this trend and issued a series of orders forbidding "the expression of public sentiments against the war or the Administration" in his department; this finally climaxed with General Order No. 38, which declared that "any person found guilty of treason will be tried by a military tribunal and either imprisoned or banished to enemy lines".

On May 1, 1863, Ohio Congressman [[Clement L. Vallandigham]], a prominent opponent of the war, held a large public rally in [[Mount Vernon, Ohio]] in which he denounced President Lincoln as a "tyrant" who sought to abolish the Constitution and set up a dictatorship. Burnside had dispatched several agents to the rally who took down notes and brought back their "evidence" to the general, who then declared that it was sufficient grounds to arrest Vallandigham for treason. A military court tried him and found him guilty of violating General Order No. 38, despite his protests that he was expressing his opinions publicly. Vallandigham was sentenced to imprisonment for the duration of the war and was turned into a martyr by antiwar Democrats. Burnside next turned his attention to Illinois, where the Chicago ''Times'' newspaper had been printing antiwar editorials for months. The general dispatched a squadron of troops to the paper's offices and ordered them to cease printing.

Lincoln had not been asked or informed about either Vallandigham's arrest or the closure of the Chicago ''Times''. He remembered the section of General Order No. 38 which declared that offenders would be banished to enemy lines and finally decided that it was a good idea so Vallandigham was freed from jail and sent to Confederate hands. Meanwhile, Lincoln ordered the Chicago ''Times'' to be reopened and announced that Burnside had exceeded his authority in both cases. The President then issued a warning that generals were not to arrest civilians or close down newspapers again without the White House's permission.<ref>McPherson, pp. 596–97. McPherson remarked that Burnside's "political judgment proved no more subtle than his military judgment at Fredericksburg."</ref>

Burnside also dealt with Confederate raiders such as [[John Hunt Morgan]].

In the [[Knoxville Campaign]], Burnside advanced to [[Knoxville, Tennessee]], first bypassing the Confederate-held Cumberland Gap and ultimately occupying Knoxville unopposed; he then sent troops back to the Cumberland Gap. Confederate commander Brig. Gen. [[John W. Frazer]] refused to surrender in the face of two Union brigades but Burnside arrived with a third, forcing the surrender of Frazer and 2,300 Confederates.<ref>Korn, p. 104.</ref>

Union Maj. Gen. [[William S. Rosecrans]] was defeated at the [[Battle of Chickamauga]], and Burnside was pursued by [[Lieutenant General (CSA)|Lt. Gen.]] [[James Longstreet]], against whose troops he had battled at Marye's Heights. Burnside skillfully outmaneuvered Longstreet at the [[Battle of Campbell's Station]] and was able to reach his entrenchments and safety in Knoxville, where he was briefly besieged until the Confederate defeat at the [[Battle of Fort Sanders]] outside the city. Tying down Longstreet's corps at Knoxville contributed to Gen. Braxton Bragg's defeat by Maj. Gen. [[Ulysses S. Grant]] at [[Battle of Chattanooga III|Chattanooga]]. Troops under Maj. Gen. [[William T. Sherman]] marched to Burnside's aid, but the siege had already been lifted; Longstreet withdrew, eventually returning to Virginia.<ref name=WWS/>

===Overland Campaign===
Burnside was ordered to take the IX Corps back to the Eastern Theater, where he built it up to a strength of over 21,000 in Annapolis, Maryland.<ref>Grimsley, p. 245, n. 43.</ref> The IX Corps fought in the [[Overland Campaign]] of May 1864 as an independent command, reporting initially to Grant; his corps was not assigned to the Army of the Potomac because Burnside outranked its commander Maj. Gen. [[George G. Meade]], who had been a division commander under Burnside at Fredericksburg. This cumbersome arrangement was rectified on May 24 just before the [[Battle of North Anna]], when Burnside agreed to waive his precedence of rank and was placed under Meade's direct command.<ref>Esposito, text for map 120.</ref>

Burnside fought at the battles of [[Battle of the Wilderness|Wilderness]] and [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania Court House]], where he did not perform in a distinguished manner,<ref>Grimsley, p. 230, describes Burnside's conduct as "inept". Rhea, p. 317: "[Burnside's] failings were so flagrant that the Army talked about them openly. He stumbled badly in the Wilderness and worse still at Spotsylvania."</ref> attacking piecemeal and appearing reluctant to commit his troops to the costly frontal assaults that characterized these battles. After North Anna and [[Battle of Cold Harbor|Cold Harbor]], he took his place in the [[Siege of Petersburg|siege lines at Petersburg]].<ref>Wilson, np.</ref>

===The Crater===
[[File:Petersburg crater aftermath 1865.jpg|thumb|Petersburg Crater, 1865]]
As the two armies faced the stalemate of [[trench warfare]] at Petersburg in July 1864, Burnside agreed to a plan suggested by a regiment of former coal miners in his corps, the 48th Pennsylvania: to dig a mine under a fort named Elliot's Salient in the Confederate entrenchments and ignite explosives there to achieve a surprise breakthrough. The fort was destroyed on July 30 in what is known as the [[Battle of the Crater]].

Because of interference from Meade, Burnside was ordered, only hours before the infantry attack, not to use his division of [[United States Colored Troops|black troops]], which had been specially trained for the assault: instead, he was forced to use untrained white troops. He could not decide which division to choose as a replacement, so he had his three subordinate commanders draw lots.<ref>[[#chernow|Chernow, 2017]], pp. 426-428</ref>

The division chosen by chance was that commanded by Brig. Gen. [[James H. Ledlie]], who had failed to brief the men on what was expected of them, and was observed to be drinking liquor with Brig. Gen Edward Ferrero in a bombproof shelter well behind the lines during the battle, providing no leadership at all.

As a result, Ledlie's men entered the huge crater instead of going around it, became trapped, and were subjected to heavy fire from Confederates around the rim, resulting in high casualties.  in the end his forces suffered 3,800 casualties <ref name=chernow426>[[#chernow|Chernow, 2017]], pp. 426-429</ref><ref>[[#slotkin2009|Slotkin, 2009]], pp. 70, 166, 322</ref>

As a result of the Crater fiasco, Burnside was relieved of command on August 14 and sent on "extended leave" by Grant. He was never recalled to duty for the remainder of the war. A court of inquiry later placed the blame for the defeat on Burnside, Ledlie and Ferrero. In December, Burnside met with President Lincoln and General Grant about his future. He was contemplating resignation, but Lincoln and Grant requested that he remain in the Army. At the end of the interview, Burnside wrote, "I was not informed of any duty upon which I am to be placed." He finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865, after Lee's surrender at [[Battle of Appomattox Court House|Appomattox]].<ref>Wert, pp. 385–86; Mierka, np.; Eicher, pp. 155–56.</ref>

The [[United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War]] later exonerated Burnside and placed the blame for the Union defeat at the Crater on General Meade for requiring the specially trained USCT (United States Colored Troops) men to be withdrawn.