General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Union Army of the Potomac following the removal of George B. McClellan.
This was a difficult time in the army. McClellan was beloved by many soldiers, and he had a loyal following among some in the command structure. But others detested him, and his successor would have a difficult time reconciling the pro- and anti-McClellan factions within the army's leadership. Furthermore, Ambrose Burnside was not the obvious choice for his replacement. Many favored General Joseph Hooker, who, like Burnside, commanded a corps in the army. Hooker had a strong reputation as a battlefield commander but had several liabilities: a reputation for drinking and cavorting with prostitutes and an acrimonious history with Henry Halleck, the general in chief of the Union armies. Halleck urged President Lincoln to name Burnside to head the Union's premier fighting force.
Burnside was a solid corps commander, but by his own admission was not fit to command an army. The Indiana native graduated from West Point in 1847, 18th in a class of 20. After serving for five years in the military, Burnside entered private business. He worked to develop a new rifle, but his firm went bankrupt when he refused to pay a bribe to secure a contract to sell his weapon to the U.S. army. Burnside then worked as treasurer for the Illinois Central Railroad under McClellan, who was president of the line.
When the war erupted, Burnside became a colonel in charge of the First Rhode Island volunteers. He fought without distinction at First Bull Run but then headed an expeditionary force that captured Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in February 1862. Burnside returned to the Army of the Potomac and was given command of the Ninth Corps, which fought hard at Antietam in September. Now, he was tapped for the top position in the army over his own protestations. He reluctantly assumed command and proceeded to plan an attack on Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In December, his army moved toward Lee at Fredericksburg. Several delays did not, unfortunately, deter Burnside from his plan. He attacked Lee's entrenched troops on December 13 and suffered horrendous loses.
Within one month, officers began to mutiny against Burnside's authority, and Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac on January 25. After the war, he served as Governor of Rhode Island and as a U.S. Senator before his death in 1881.
