Daily Quiz for March 14, 2009

Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-1881) was likable, an inventor, railroad executive and politician from Rhode Island. He had an honesty about his own abilities that was rare in that era and did not relish command of an army, knowing it was beyond those abilities. He reluctantly assumed command of the Army of the Potomac after George B. McClellan was sacked. Pressured by President Lincoln into an aggressive campaign, the resulting disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, and the infamous ?Mud March? of January 1863 proved his self-assessment was correct.