★ ★ Burnside, Ambrose

Ambrose Everett Burnside​

Born: May 23, 1824

Birthplace: Liberty, Indiana

Father: Judge Edghill Burnside 1792 – 1859

(Buried: Drook Cemetery, Liberty, Indiana)​

Mother: Pemela Brown 1795 – 1841

(Buried: Drook Cemetery, Liberty, Indiana)​

Wife: Mary Richmond Bishop 1828 – 1876

(Buried: Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island)​

Married: April 27, 1852 in Providence, Rhode Island

Children: None

Signature:

Education:

1847: Graduated from West Point Military Academy – (18th​ in class)​

Occupation before War:

1847: Brevet 2nd​ Lt. United States Army, 2nd​ Artillery​

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1847 – 1851: 2nd​ Lt. United States Army, 3rd​ Artillery​

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1851 – 1853: 1st​ Lt. United States Army, 3rd​ Artillery​

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1853: Resigned from United States Army on October 2nd​​

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1853 – 1858: Manufacturer of Firearms in Bristol, Rhode Island​

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1855 – 1857: Major General of Rhode Island State Militia​

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1856: Inventor of Burnside Breech – Loading Rifle​

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1856: Member of Board of Visitors at West Point Military Academy​

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1858 – 1859: Cashier of Land Department of Illinois Central Railroad​

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1860 – 1861: Treasurer of Illinois Central Railroad Company​

Civil War Career:

1861: Colonel of Rhode Island State Volunteers​

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1861: Served in the Defenses of Washington, D.C.​

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1861: Served in the First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia​

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1861: Mustered out of service on August 2nd​​

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1861 – 1862: Brigadier General of Union Army Volunteers Infantry​

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1861 – 1862: Commander of Coast Division in North Carolina​

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1862 – 1865: Major General of Union Army Volunteers Infantry​

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1862: Union Army Commander at Battle of Roanoke Island, North Carolina​

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1862: Union Army Commander at Battle of New Bern, North Carolina​

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1862: Commander of Ninth Army Corps in the Union Army​

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1862: Corps Commander at the Battle of Antietam, Maryland​

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1862 – 1863: Commander of Union Army of the Potomac​

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1862: Union Army Commander at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia​

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1863: Union Army Commander at Battle of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee​

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1863: Union Army Commander at Battle of Blue Springs, Tennessee​

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1863: Union Army Commander at Battle of Campbell's Station, Tennessee​

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1863: Union Army Commander at Battle of Fort Sanders, Tennessee​

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1864: Corps Commander during the Overland Campaign in Virginia​

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1864: Served in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia​

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1864: Served in the Battle of the Crater in Virginia​

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1865: Resigned from Union Army on April 15th​​

Occupation after War:

Director of Illinois Central Railroad Company​

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Director of Narragansett Steamship Company​

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President of Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad Company​

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1866 – 1869: Governor of Rhode Island​

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1871 – 1873: Commander of Grand Army of the Republic​

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1871: President of National Rifle Association​

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1875 – 1881: United States Senator from Rhode Island​

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1881: Senate Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee​

Died: September 13, 1881

Place of Death: Bristol, Rhode Island

Cause of Death: Neuralgia of the heart

Age at time of Death: 57 years old

Burial Place: Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Selected U.S. Patents of Ambrose Burnside​

U.S. Patent No. 14,491, dated March 25, 1856 - Improvements in Breech-Loading Fire Arms

U.S. Patent No. 17,261, dated May 12, 1857 - New and Useful Mode of Preventing Windage in Fire-Arms

 

[Pete Longstreet]

Burnside was an inept General, and even he knew it. He obtained command by default after McClellan was removed by Lincoln. Burnside even told his superiors he was not fit for such high command, and didn't believe he deserved the rank. He had his army slaughtered at the Battle of Fredericksburg. The Union Soldiers who charged that wall at Marye's Heights were a true showing of bravery in men during battle.

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday Major General Ambrose Burnside!

 

[Pollaco]

I'm not even gonna bring up the sideburns thing, everyone knows it already.

 

[Pollaco]

That incident regarding the "Burnside Bridge" at Antietam was it really his doing or actions of his subordinates?

 

[Pollaco]

He recieved the Thanks of Congress for his stand against Longstreet at Knoxville.

 

[Pollaco]

After his bungling the follow-up to the Petersburg mine explosion He was sent home on leave and was never recalled. He resigned on April 15, 1865.

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy (Monday) Birthday Major General Ambrose E. Burnside! Salutes remembering General Burnside on his birthday week.

 

[Luke Freet]

Burnside, while I will not call him a good commander, I find one of the more fascinating characters of the war. He seems to have an issue with bad luck or circumstances, though often they were due in part to his own decisions.
Prewar, he attempted to patent and produce his own carbine, but found no success, and sold off the rights; this was a mistake as a few years later the war broke out and orders for the Burnside Carbine increased.
His failure at Fredericksburg and the mutiny of his commanders during the mud March got him removed from the Army of the Potomac. He was sent west to command the Department of the Ohio, taking Knoxville and most of East Tennessee, and repulsed Longstreet's inept offensive. This got him a newfound redemption in D.C., and he and his personal 9th Corps went to Virginia.
There, his record was chaotic and spotty. He had a minor breakthrough at Cold Harbor, but failed to push at Spotsylvania. At the Crater, instead of supporting the usage of his black division, or picking his best commander (Potter) to lead the assault, he left it up to an actual strawpoll, which ended up in the hand of Ledlie, who contends to be one of the worst generals of this entire conflict. This leads to the trainwreck that was the Battle of the Crater, in which Burnside did not oversee things as a corps commander should.

 

[jackt62]

As noted by @Luke Freet, Burnside is indeed one of the "more fascinating" characters of the war. He seems to have been burdened with poor luck and timing, an inability to improvise, and limits to his command abilities. His successful oversight of amphibious operations to capture Roanoke Island and the North Carolina barrier islands in early 1862 might have been a harbinger of promise for his leadership abilities. But sadly, that relatively limited operation was about as far as his military talents would go. While he did have additional success in defending Knoxville and beating back Longstreet's mishandled East Tennessee campaign in 1863, Burnside will mostly be remembered for a string of clumsy and brainless assaults at Rohrbach Bridge, Mayre's Heights, and the Petersburg Crater to name the most egregious.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Anniversary Bump

Death

13 Sept 1881

Ambrose Everett Burnside, US Union general, died at 57.

After the war, Ambrose E. Burnside served as president of several railroads. The Civil War had forced Burnside to reconsider his political beliefs. Before the war, he had been a Democrat. In 1866, he was elected Republican governor of Rhode Island, a posting for only one year. He was reelected twice more and served until 1869.24 In 1875, the Rhode Island Senate elected Burnside U.S. Senator. Burnside served on three different committees during his senatorial tenure: the Committee on Military Affairs, as chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, and as chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Continuing in this military vein, he served as the first president of the National Rifle Association when the organization was founded in 1871. He was reelected to the Senate in 1881, again as a Republican, and served in that post until his death on September 13, 1881.

Full article here - https://www.in.gov/history/files/81.1963.1review-1.pdf

Cheers,
USS ALASKA