BURNSIDE, AMBROSE E. 



BURNSIDE, JOHN. 



77 



called and ordered to Fredericksburg. There 

 he remained until General Pope was defeated 

 at the second battle of Bull Run. In March, 

 1862, General Burnside was commissioned 

 major-general of volunteers, and during the 

 Confederate invasion of Maryland he was under 

 General McClellan's command. At the battle 

 OL Antietam he commanded the left wing. On 

 November 10, 1862, he took command of the 

 Army of the Potomac, superseding General 

 McOlellan, which position he retained until 

 January 26, 1863. In 1862 the State of Rhode 

 Island presented to him a sword of honor in 

 testimony of his services at Roanoke Island. 

 While in command of the Army of the Potomac 

 he moved from the Rapidan to Fredericks- 

 burg on the Rappahannock, with a view to 

 crossing the river at that point and moving 

 thence upon Richmond. General Lee, how- 

 ever, took possession of the heights on the 

 opposite bank before Burnside was ready to 

 cross, and when, on the 12th of September, the 

 Union forces crossed and endeavored to break 

 the Confederate lines, they were repulsed after 

 repeated attacks. For this movement he was 

 severely criticise^ by several officers of high 

 rank, whose removal he requested, tendering 

 his resignation of the command if his request 

 was not complied with. His resignation was 

 accepted, and General Hooker succeeded him. 

 In the following March he was in command of 

 the Department of Ohio, and soon after assum- 

 ing this position he arrested C. L. Vallandig- 

 ham on account of his defiant utterances. The 

 pursuit and capture of Morgan's raiders also 

 occurred while he had charge of this depart- 

 ment, soon after which General Burnside under- 

 took to drive the Confederates from East Ten- 

 nessee ; in this he was successful, and for it 

 received the thanks of Congress. Late in Sep- 

 tember, 1863, the Ninth Corps, which had 

 been detached from Burnside's command, was 

 restored to it. In the mean time General Lee 

 had sent General Longstreet to Tennessee with 

 a strong force from Virginia. Burnside fell 

 back to Knoxville, where he was besieged until 

 the beginning of December, when the siege was 

 abandoned on the approach of General Sher- 

 man with a detachment of General Grant's 

 army. Burnside was then relieved from his 

 command in the West, and in January, 1864, 

 was restored to that of the Ninth Corps, with 

 which he followed Grant over the Rapidan 

 Grant crossing May 4th and Burnside May 5th. 

 The battles of the Wilderness. Spottsylvania, 

 and North Anna succeeded the corps being 

 now attached to the Army of the Potomac, 

 under the immediate command of General 

 Meade, Burnside waiving his seniority in rank. 

 His corps was prominent in subsequent oper- 

 ations down to the siege of Petersburg. Dur- 

 ing the early part of this siege, Burnside's 

 lines were close to those of the enemy, and op- 

 posite them was a strong redoubt forming an 

 important part of the Confederate defense. 

 Beneath this work General Burnside caused a 



mine to be run, and blew it up on the 30th of 

 June ; but the general assault, which had been 

 planned to follow, was not made, and the affair 

 was a failure. Burnside then proffered his 

 resignation, which was not accepted, but ho 

 was granted leave of absence, and not being 

 recalled to active service he resigned April 15, 

 1865. As an officer he was much loved by 

 his subordinates. After his retirement Gen- 

 eral Burnside was engaged in business in 

 Rhode Island, having been a director in the 

 Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Narra- 

 gansett Steamship Company, and President of 

 the Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad Com- 

 pany, of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, 

 and of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Rail- 

 road Company. In 1866 he was elected Gov- 

 ernor of Rhode Island, and was afterward 

 honored with two re-elections. In 1869, be- 

 fore the expiration of the third term, when he 

 was asked tor the use of his name again, he 

 publicly announced that he would not be a 

 candidate for re-election. The following year 

 he visited Europe, and was admitted within the 

 German and French lines in and around Paris, 

 acting as a medium of communication between 

 the hostile nations, in the interests of concilia- 

 tion. On his return home he was again sum- 

 moned to public duties, being elected to the 

 United States Senate as successor to ex-Gov- 

 ernor William Sprague. When a similar elec- 

 tion was required he was again chosen, and had 

 entered upon his second term at the time of 

 his death. 



General Burnside resided periodically in 

 Providence and Bristol, the latter being his sum- 

 mer home, and it was here that he entertained 

 General Grant in the summer of 1875. He 

 died without family, his wife having closed her 

 life in March, 1876. In the hearts of his friends 

 and associates General Burnside's memory is 

 preserved with the kindliest respect ; the peo- 

 ple of his State admired and trusted him, and 

 the veteran soldiers delighted to honor the vet- 

 eran leader on many a hard-fought field. 



BURNSIDE, JOHN, born in Ireland; died 

 June 29, 1881, at Greenbrier, White Sulphur 

 Springs, Virginia. Mr. Burnside was at the 

 time of his death one of the few millionaires 

 in the South, and the largest sugar-planter in 

 the United States. His reticence concerning his 

 age leaves that point to conjecture, but it is sup- 

 posed by his most intimate friends that he must 

 have been at least seventy-eight when he died. 

 Like many other men of large fortune in Amer- 

 ica, Mr. Burnside commenced life in extreme 

 poverty, and from filling the humble position 

 of clerk to Mr. Andrew Beirne, a merchant in 

 Fincastle.Botetourt County, Virginia, he gradu- 

 ally acquired such importance with his em- 

 ployer as to be made by him the partner of 

 his son in a wholesale dry -goods house at New 

 Orleans. During a great financial panic, Mr. 

 Bnrnside and his partner had the nerve to ex.- 

 tend credit when other merchants refused all 

 risks. In this way the firm of Beirne & Burn- 



