Ambrose Burnside (May 23, 1824 - September 13, 1881)

Ambrose Burnside was born on May 23, 1824, near Liberty, Indiana. He was the son of Quaker parents, Edghill Burnside and Pamela Brown Burnside. Burnside obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy in 1843, and he graduated in 1847. Following graduation, Burnside served in Mexico toward the end of the Mexican-American War, followed by service in the American West. In 1852, Burnside was appointed to the command of Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. On April 27, of the same year, he married Mary Richmond Bishop, of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1853, Burnside resigned his commission in the United States Army to focus his attention on the manufacture of the Burnside carbine rifle. When his industrial efforts failed, financial difficulties forced Burnside to relocate to Illinois, where he worked for his fellow West Point cadet and future commanding officer, George B. McClellan, at the Illinois Central Railroad.

When the American Civil War began, Burnside raised a volunteer regiment in Rhode Island and was commissioned as a colonel on May 2, 1861. He participated in the First Battle of Manassas (July 21, 1861), and was promoted brigadier general in the regular army on August 6, 1861. From September 1861 until July 1862, Burnside commanded successful coastal operations off the Carolina coast. During that time, he directed the battles of Roanoke Island (February 7 -8, 1862) and New Bern (March 14, 1862), the first significant Union victories in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. Those successes led to Burnside's promotion to major general on March 18, 1862. Twice in 1862, he declined opportunities to replace his friend, General McClellan, as commander of the Army of the Potomac. At the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), McClellan criticized Burnside for delaying his attack and failing to capture "Burnside's Bridge." When President Lincoln relieved McClellan from command and offered Burnside a third chance to lead the Army of the Potomac, on November 8, 1862, he accepted.

Burnside's command was short-lived. Due to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862), and the failed offensive known as the Mud March in January 1863, Lincoln reassigned Burnside to the Department of the Ohio on March 16, 1863. While in Ohio, Burnside issued his controversial General Order Number 38, on April 13, 1863, making it a crime to express public opposition to the war. On May 5, 1863, Burnside had former Ohio congressman and Peace Democrat, Clement Vallandigham, arrested for violating General Order Number 38 during a speech delivered at Mount Vernon, Ohio, on May 1. Subsequently, Burnside had Vallandigham tried in a military court, despite the fact that he was a civilian.

On the battlefield, Burnside conducted a successful campaign in Tennessee during the autumn of 1863. He was ordered back to the Eastern Theater on April 25, 1864, and he participated in the battles of the Wilderness (May 5 - 7, 1864), Spotsylvania Court House (May 8-21, 1864), North Anna (May 23-26, 1864), and Cold Harbor (May 31-June 12, 1864), as well as the Siege of Petersburg (June 9, 1864-March 25, 1865). During the Siege of Petersburg, Burnside commanded the ill-fated Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864), prompting General Ulysses S. Grant to relieve Burnside of his command and send him on leave. On April 15, 1865, Burnside resigned from the army.

Following the Civil War, Burnside was the director of several railroad companies, and on April 4, 1866, he was elected as Governor of Maryland, serving three one-year terms. From 1871 to 1872, Burnside was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans' association. In 1871, he was chosen as the first president of the National Rifle Association. On March 5, 1875, Burnside began the first of two-terms as a United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving until his death in 1881. Ambrose Everett Burnside died from heart disease on September 13, 1881, in Bristol, Rhode Island. He is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.