Ambrose Burnside
By McKenzie Jeter
Early Life
Ambrose Burnside was born in Liberty, Indiana on May 23, 1824. He was the 4th of the 9 children of Edghill and Pamela Brown Burnside.
He attended United States Military Academy in 1843 and graduated in 1847, ranked as 18th out of 38 graduates.
He was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Artillery and fought in the Mexican-American war
First Battle of Bull Run
Burnside was a brigadier general for the Rhode Island militia during the beginning of the war. He was then appointed Colonel on May 2, 1861 for the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry.
In July of The First Battle of Bull Run he temporarily commanded for General David Hunter. After commanding for 90 days he was out of service in August and moved up to brigadier general of volunteers and assigned to train the brigades of the Army of the Potomac.
Antietam
Burnside was now in charge of the right wing of the Army of the Potomac. During the war of Antietam, instead of using other easier ways of getting across Antietam Creek, he made his soldiers go across the narrow bridge. The bridge was an easy shooting side for the confederates and the Union began losing soldiers quickly.
General McClellan refused to bring back up and the battle ended in a win for the Confederates.