by Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.) D.C.) GalleryArt (Washington, Photographic National Brady He was thrice elected governor kindliness and compassion. His willingness to break the law and to of Rhode Island, and afterwards twice biographer, Benjamin Perley Poore, fight when absolutely necessary. chosen to serve in the United States wrote: “Kindness was the means to By the time the Quakers of Senate. He was one of the few in his all his ends—and to every one, on Burnside’s youth were enlisting in the time to consider the black man the every suitable occasion, he Union Army, Burnside had already equal of the white man, and to favor preached kindness.” invented one of the guns that would equal opportunity for all. He was a To m a ny of t he I nd i a n a Q u a ker s help the Union win the war. clever inventor who developed a fine and their neighbors, freeing the slaves military rifle. He had a most seemed to be the kindest thing a The Inventor | As a teenager, spectacular set of whiskers, the person could do. Near Burnside’s Burnside apprenticed for a tailor. nickname for which remains a home lay Fountain City, home of the However, at age 19,his hopes were staple of today’s tonsorial lexicon. Quaker Levi Coffin. The home was realized when he was offered If you like to wear “sideburns,” known as the “Grand Central Station appointment to West Point. After then you owe a small debt to General of the Underground Railroad.” graduating in the class of 1847, Ambrose Burnside, who popularized As workers on the Underground Lieutenant Burnside accepted a wearing whiskers without a beard. If Railroad, the Quakers and their commission in the u.s.Artillery in you love civil rights, then you owe a abolitionist friends violated federal Mexico—just as the war was ending. great debt to Burnside, for he was a and state laws, and conspired with He was then stationed in New founder and the first president of the armed groups. While the Quakers did Mexico, and in 1849 served in a war largest civil rights organization in the not typically carry arms, conductors with the Apache Indians. Burnside world: the National Rifle Association. on the Underground Railroad and the u.s. forces prevailed, and the certainly did. Apaches signed a peace treaty in 1851. The Kindness of Friends | When the Civil War came, the During the Apache war, Lt. Burnside Ambrose Everett Burnside was born Philadelphia Quakers generally chose was wounded by an arrow in his neck. on May 23, 1824, in Liberty, Ind. The not to fight. But according to Indiana He recognized a serious disadvantage east-central Indiana of Burnside’s Gov. Oliver P. Morton, Quakers in his that u.s.soldiers faced against the youth was a well-established Quaker state enlisted at a higher proportional Indians. At close range, the u.s.cavalry stronghold. rate than any other denomination. was very effective with its sabers. At Although Burnside was not a So the community that nurtured longer range, Indians with bows could member of the Society of Friends, the young Ambrose Burnside shared a produce a much more rapid rate of fire he was deeply influenced by Quakers special dedication to kindness, and than could u.s.cavalry carrying and became a man known for his therefore to civil rights—and thus a muzzle-loading carbines. The Colt st st 44 Ame r ic a’s 1 Freed om | October 2004 America’s 1 Freedom | September 2004 43 six-shooter revolver would eventually earned reputation for bravery, military Confederate forces, now low on Fredericksburg, of several dozens of Burnside had been extensively division might then sweep forward prove a very potent weapon in the ability and administrative talents of a ammunition and depleted by the clumsy wooden scows with which drilling his “colored” troops to take the into Petersburg itself. It was a bold hands of u.s.cavalry,but it had not yet high order … .” casualties, began to withdraw. the army built its pontoon bridges.” lead upon the detonation of the gambit, but the tactics were sound. been widely adopted. However, as a Union general, Burnside finally succeeded in taking However, the pontoons arrived explosives. The plan was that, The only problem was that Burnside So in October 1853,Burnside Burnside never rose to the outstanding the bridge, but his remaining troops— eight days late. following the explosion, these troops had committed himself to a plan resigned his commission from the level of Ulysses Grant, Winfield Scott also suffering casualties, exhausted and While Burnside waited for the would forge ahead to the left and the without the approval of his superiors.” army and, with borrowed money, Hancock or Philip Sheridan—to low on ammunition—were unable to pontoons to arrive, Gen. Lee exploited right of the resulting crater to capture At the last moment, General Meade, established the Bristol Rifle Works in name three generals who later advance. If Burnside’s troops had not the delay to position his 78,000-man the high ground behind the who was known to be prejudiced Bristol, r.i. He aimed to create a succeeded Burnside as presidents of been expended so unwisely in the Army of Northern Virginia on high Confederate lines. against blacks, insisted that the charge lightweight, faster, durable breech­ the National Rifle Association. assault at the bridge, they might have ground around Fredericksburg. It was Burnside who, earlier, had be led by white troops. Meade told loading carbine. Burnside’s carbine Burnside was a deliberate, methodical been able to win the day decisively, and Burnside should have known that he asked the secretary of war to organize Burnside: “I cannot approve of your was patented on March 25, 1856.In the thinker. Because he could spend several to destroy General Robert E. Lee’s could not now succeed in dislodging a new division of black troops, for placing the negro troops in advance, as summer of 1857,a board of military years slowly refining and perfecting his army before it could retreat. Lee’s troops, but he did not alter his which he received permission. The proposed in your project…[b]ecause officers at West Point evaluated several carbine, he invented a great gun. In Antietam was the single bloodiest battle plan. The five-day battle of Providence Journal would later note I do not think they should be called new carbines and unanimously agreed contrast, during wartime, as battle day in American military history. It Fredericksburg, Dec. 11-15, 1862, about Burnside: “One of the first of the upon to do as important a work as that Burnside’s was the best suited for conditions rapidly deviated from what was a Union victory, for Lee’s advance resulted in terrible Union losses. regular army officers to approve that which you propose to do, military service. had been anticipated, Burnside could into Maryland was repulsed. Burnside withdrew, defeated. heartily of Mr. Lincoln’s emancipation certainly not called upon to lead.” Five weeks later, with Lee still policy, he was also one of the first to In testimony given in the aftermath entrenched at Fredericksburg, favor the arming of black troops, and of the resulting fiasco, Gen. Grant Burnside—following Lincoln’s one of the most successful in training would explain: “General Burnside Today, bigots such as Michael Moore spread lies attempting to link the National orders—attempted to move his army them for action.” wanted to put his colored division in to a more advantageous position. A Although ready for battle, the black front, and I believe if he had done so it nra s Rifle Association with the Ku Klux Klan. » The ’ Articles of Incorporation torrent of rain turned the roads to mud, troops in the Union army were would have been a success … .” were notable for what they did not contain: exclusionary clauses. » In the very rendering them impassible. But Burnside underutilized, relegated to the role of Burnside reluctantly acquiesced d.c. 1930 1940 nra would not disobey Lincoln’s orders. laborers or guards. At Petersburg, because Gen. Grant sided with Meade. segregated Washington, ,for the s and s,the club would be the The wagons carrying pontoon Burnside had determined that these At the last minute, Burnside, by the only integrated place where a young black man could go and feel fully welcome. bridges and artillery pieces sank black troops, under Gen. Edward drawing of lots, chose Gen. James immobilized into the mud. Burnside’s Ferrero, would be the ideal choice to Ledlie’s division to lead the assault. “Mud March” had to be abandoned. On lead the charge after the explosion. However, Ledlie became inebriated, as Jan. 25, 1863, Burnside was relieved of his A victory at Petersburg could have should have been expected from his Despite the favorable review, not quickly improvise or adapt his Nevertheless, Antietam was the last command of the Army of the Potomac smashed Lee’s Army of Northern past behavior. Without effective Burnside’s company went bankrupt carefully devised battle plans. straw for President Lincoln, who for and placed by Lincoln in command of Virginia. The road to Richmond leadership, Ledlie’s men charged from a combination of factors: And more than once he had to months had been exasperated with the Department of the Ohio. would have lain wide open, and the directly into the crater instead of insufficiency of orders for the gun carry out impossible orders.