Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside

[Gil R.]

One of the very first bios written was Burnside, which Murat sent me privately instead of posting it in a thread. (This was back in the days before this sub-forum existed.) The bio was something like 1500 characters too long, and because it's Burnside it could easily have been longer, so I've been dreading this day. But I finally just bit the bullet and spent three hours getting it down to 3900 characters. Since Murat has moved on -- I last saw him in the "Empires in Arms" forum -- I didn't bother to mark my changes. Here's the final product, which I think is quite good:


Maj. Gen. Ambrose Everett Burnside (b. 1824, d. 1881). Graduating West Point in 1847, Burnside fought in Mexico and then against the Apaches. By 1852 Burnside was commanding Fort Adams at Newport, Rhode Island, where he met his wife Mary. Having invented the “Burnside Carbine,” one of the best breechloaders of the Civil War, he resigning his commission to focus on manufacturing the gun for the army. Burnside soon went broke – in part, allegedly, because he refused to bribe the Secretary of War over the necessary contract – but found work under his friend George B. McClellan at the Illinois Central Railroad. When the Civil War began, Burnside raised the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was appointed its colonel on May 2, 1861. At First Bull Run on July 21 Burnside’s performance as a brigade commander was mediocre, but he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on August 6. Given the Coast Division by Army of the Potomac commander McClellan, that January Burnside commenced a three-month amphibious campaign along the North Carolina coast, capturing key bases used for the Union’s naval blockade. He was rewarded with promotion to major general, effective March 18, and his division was expanded into the IX Corps when he rejoined McClellan’s battered army in the aftermath of the failed Peninsular Campaign that July. Burnside was also offered command of the Army of the Potomac itself, but refused the position in part out of loyalty to McClellan. He turned down the position again following the debacle of Second Bull Run, a battle he had missed while stationed at Fredericksburg. His performance at Antietam on September 17 has been judged by many as poor because his delay in crossing “Burnside’s Bridge” allowed Gen. A.P. Hill’s division to arrive, preventing a decisive Union victory. He was viewed more favorably by his contemporaries – including Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who removed McClellan and assigned the reluctant Burnside to command the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. Taking the offensive, Burnside drove rapidly towards Richmond, getting his forces into central Virginia before Gen. Robert E. Lee discovered the movement. Unfortunately, subordinate commanders failed to carry out orders and the delays allowed Lee to prepare a heavily defended position above Fredericksburg at Marye’s Heights. Despite this situation rendering his plan for taking the town far less feasible, Burnside persisted in attacking Lee’s reinforced and entrenched army, and the inept performance of some subordinates further ensured a terribly bloody defeat. Accepting full blame, Burnside offered to retire, but Lincoln instead reassigned him to command the Department of the Ohio, which his old corps soon joined. Occupying Knoxville in September 1863, Burnside defended the city against Gen. James Longstreet’s brief siege two months later. Ordered back to Virginia with the IX Corps that spring, he fought in the Overland Campaign and, more famously, at Petersburg. It was here that his career ended when, on July 30, he oversaw the disastrously executed “Battle of the Crater,” which began with explosives being ignited at the end of a tunnel dug under Confederate fortifications by coal miners serving in his corps. Forced to use troops that were poorly prepared, Burnside’s assault on the stunned Confederates was quickly halted and the blast crater soon filled with the bodies of his men. Burnside received the full blame for this fiasco and was sent on leave and never recalled; he finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865. After the war, he served as Rhode Island Governor for three one-year terms (1866-1868), president of the Grand Army of the Republic, first president of the National Rifle Association, a Peace Commissioner in the Franco-Prussian War, and a U.S. Senator from 1875 until his death on September 13, 1881. (Bio by “Murat”)

[jkBluesman]

A pretty positive bio for Burnside who got such bad ratings in the voting. Is it the last overlength bio?

[Gil R.]

That's a good point about the ratings. Burnside was mediocre at Bull Run, the one time he commanded a brigade in combat, then was very effective as a division commander in his North Carolina campaign, then performed poorly commanding his corps at Antietam but it wasn't fully his fault, then performed well as an army commander in some respects but ultimately messed up at Fredericksburg (but plenty of blame can fall in subordinates both before and during the fighting), performed just fine as a corps commander in Kentucky, and then took the blame for the Crater even though that likewise can't be blamed on him fully. He's something of a poster child for having different ratings for some generals based on their rank -- perhaps something we'll implement if/when we do an expansion.

The thing that mystifies me upon opening the generals' data file is why in the world I gave him the special abilities "Night Owls" and "Steady." I can't think of a nighttime battle he was involved in, and don't know where "Steady" came from. Maybe I typed the wrong numbers. Should I instead give him "Obedient" (16) and "Polar Bears" (18)?

[Gil R.]

As for long bios left, the most difficult will probably be J.E.B. Stuart, since Murat did one for him, but then when Battleline was working through the alphabet he did one as well (weighing in at 4500+ characters). The ideal would be to keep one and add the best parts from the other and boil it down. Also, both of you did Alexander Lawton, so those two need to be combined. Plus I have some extra-long bios of prominent generals written by people no longer involved in the project, at least some of which might have such high Wikipedia content that I might just reassign the bios rather than struggling to rewrite them -- I have to check when I have time. (As I wrote in another thread, using Wikipedia is fine, but quoting from it verbatim is bad, since the idea with this project is to create new bios, and also because Wikipedia rightly asks that people not use their entries without giving proper credit.)

[jkBluesman]

In George Thomas' bio are plenty of wikipedia quotes, as far as I remember.
Concerning Burnside, I would add that his performance during the overland campaign was pretty bad (he acted very slowly) though again part of the problem was that he was independent from Meade who had to get orders from Grant for Burnside. "Polar Bears" sounds good to me though I would prefer "Resilient" to "Obedient".

[Gil R.]

You're exactly right. I've been meaning to check that one, since I assumed it to be the case, and it turns out to be. Instead of my rewriting it myself, as I did with Merritt, I'd like to reassign it. Any interest?

[jkBluesman]

I would love to do Thomas. He really is an interesting guy and one of the best generals of the war.

[Gil R.]

I thought you might...

[jkBluesman]

Then I think I will...