56: The Battle of Fredericksburg and the First Campaign of Vicksburg

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

“If the world had been searched by Burnside for a location in which his army could be best defeated ... he should have selected this very spot.” This is the story of leadership turnover in the Union and total war on the field. US President Abraham Lincoln has had his fill of George B. “Little Mac” McClellan. Little Mac is getting fired. He’s being replaced by the general with the best facial-hair game in the army: Ambrose Burnsides. But Ambrose doesn’t want command. He doesn’t think he’s the man for the job. Still, he’s going to try to be the aggressive general he knows the President wants. Ambrose plans to charge at the Confederate capital with his 120,000-strong Army of the Potomac. But he’ll have to deal with Robert E. Lee first. They’re coming to blow up the little Virginia town George Washington’s mother once called home: Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, Ulysses S. Grant is facing challenges out west in the Mississippi Valley. Can he out navigate a politicking general and take the crucial rivertown of Vicksburg, Mississippi? We’ll find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	History that doesn't suck is a bi-weekly podcast, Delirian Illigit,
0:03.2	seriously researched hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories.
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0:20.5	To keep up with HTTDS News, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
0:30.5	Welcome to History that doesn't suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.
0:46.0	Ambrose Burnside wakes with a start. The ever-responsible major general of the 9th
0:50.9	Corps had gone to bed early this November 7th, 1862 evening, perhaps with hopes of getting
0:56.1	some much needed rest to think through supply line issues. Instead, someone's ripped him from
1:02.4	his sleep only moments after he nodded off. As Ambrose's eyes adjust to the dim light,
1:08.2	he recognizes the old friend standing before him. It's General Catharineus P. Bucking him.
1:14.8	Aging, balding, and whitebearded, Catharineus has trappled from the US Capitol of Washington City
1:20.3	to Ambrose's headquarters just south of Salem, Virginia, to deliver an envelope containing
1:25.2	urgent orders from the war department. He now hands it to the younger general with such
1:29.6	full and magnificent sideburns, his men named the facial hair style after him.
1:34.8	Ambrose Burnside, Sideburns, yeah, you get it. Ambrose opens and reads the two-day-old envelope
1:41.0	document. General orders, number 182, war department,
1:46.8	Adjutant General's Office, Washington, November 5th, 1862. By direction of the President of the
1:53.3	United States, it is ordered that Major General McClellan be relieved from the command of the
1:57.6	Army of the Potomac and that Major General Burnside take the command of that army.
2:02.2	President Lincoln has offered Ambrose command of the Army of the Potomac twice since July,
2:06.6	and both times he turned it down. But now the commander in chief isn't asking. He's ordering.
	...

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