Military officer; born in
Liberty, Ind., May 23, 1824; was graduated at
West Point in 1847, and, as a member of a corps of artillery, accompanied
General Patterson to
Mexico the same year.
Afterwards he was in charge of a squadron of cavalry in
New Mexico; was quartermaster of the Mexican Boundary Commission in 1850-51; resigned in 1853; established a manufactory of breech-loading rifles (his own invention) in
Rhode Island; and was an officer of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company when the
Civil War began.
He went into that conflict as colonel of the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers.
For good service at the
battle of Bull Run he was made (Aug. 6, 1861)
major-general of volunteers.
He commanded the expedition that captured
Roanoke Island (q. v.) in February, 1862; also
Newbern and
Beaufort.
He was called to
Virginia after the close of the campaign on the Peninsula, and was active and skilful as a corps commander in many of the most important military events of the war.
General Burnside served in the campaign in
Maryland under
McClellan, and was in the battles at
South Mountain and
Antietam.
On Nov. 7, 1862, he superseded
McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac.
Failing of success in his attack upon
Lee at
Fredericksburg (December, 1862), he resigned, and was succeeded by
General Hooker in January, 1863.
Assigned to the command of the Department of the Ohio in May, he was active there in suppressing the disloyal elements in that region.
In the fall he freed
eastern Tennessee of Confederate domination, where he fought
Longstreet.
He was in command of his old corps (the 9th) in
Grant's campaign against
Richmond in 1864-65, where he performed important work.
He resigned April 15, 1865.
In 1866 he was elected governor of
Rhode Island, and was twice re-elected.
Being in
Europe in the fall of 1870, he was admitted within the German and French lines around
Paris, and ineffectually endeavored to mediate between the belligerents.
He was elected to the United States Senate in 1875, and was re-elected in 1880.
He died in
Bristol, R. I., Sept. 3, 1881.
