BURNSIDE.
BURNSIDE.
wounded soldier and kept up a deadly fire dur-
ing the whole day, when he was wounded and
captured, narrowly escaping execution as an
unuuifornied combatant. As the Confederates
retreated he was left behind. He afterwards
made his home on the battle-field, and was
placed beyond want through the generosity of
thovisands of visitors. The " hero of Gettys-
burg " finally lost his mind, wandered to New
York city, and in December, 1871, was found
in the streets nearly frozen. He was cared for
and sent to his home in Gettysburg, Pa., where
he died Feb. 7. 1872.
BURNSIDE, Ambrose Everett, soldier, was born in Liberty, Ind., May 23, 1824; fourth son of Edgehill and Pamelia (Bi'own) Burnside. His first American ancestor, Robert Burnside, settled in South Carolina about 1746, having fled from Scotland upon the final defeat of the "Young Pretender,"' whose cause he had espoused. Of his three sons born in America, James during the period of the revolu- tion remained loyal to the crown, and was captain of a regiment of loyalists, who op- 'erated with the Brit- ish army in the south- ern campaigns. As a Tory he fled to the island of Jamaica, but in 1786 returned to South Carolina, where he died in 1798. His widow, with four sons then grown, joined a band of Quaker emigrants bound for a free state, and before setting out gave free- dom to all her slaves. She crossed the Ohio river and located in Indiana. The third son, Edgehill, made his home in Liberty, a new town then just forming. Here he married and brought up a family of nine children. His life was a constant struggle with poverty, and Ambrose, when seven- teen years old, was apprenticed to a tailor. The business was irksome and he showed his inclina- tion to a military life by reading stories of heroes and talking with the old soldiers who had served in the war of 1812. This trait was made the sub- ject of comment by the patrons of the shop, and one of these, Caleb B. Smith, at the time a rep- resentative in Congress, offered to procure for him an appointment to West Point, which he obtained in 1843, and upon his graduation with the class of 1847, Lieutenant Burnside was or- dered to the city of Mexico, then under military occupation by United States troops. He did gar- rison duty there until the return of the army,
'U^yl/lJi-i^
when he served at Fort Adams, at Las Vegas,
N. M., where he was wounded, and at Jefferson
Barracks, Mo. He resigned his commission as
1st lieutenant of the 3d artillery in 1853, and
established at Bristol, R. I., a factory for the
manufacture of a breech-loading rifle, which he
had invented, and which had received the ap-
proval of a board of commissioners appointed by
Congress to test its merits in competition with
some eighteen different breech-loading arms
which had been submitted. This decision justi-
fied him in expecting an order from the govern-
ment, which not being forthcoming he went to
Washington and was informed that he could
have the contract upon the payment of a bonus
of five thousand dollars to a lobbyist who enjoyed
the favor of the war department. This proposi-
tion he indignantly refused, and he was there-
upon obliged to make an assignment for the
benefit of his creditors, and with fifteen dollars
in his pocket he started west to retrieve his for-
tunes. With the assistance of old friends in
Indiana he secured a position in Chicago as cash
ier of the land department of the Illinois Central
railroad, of which his classmate, Capt. Geo. B.
McClellan, was vice-president, and after a year's
service became treasurer of the road, with an
office in New York city. By practising the
strictest economy he paid his debts in full. In
1861 he was appointed, by Governor Sprague,
colonel of the 1st Rhode Island volunteers, which
he had organized. He led the regiment to Wash-
ington by way of Annapolis, Md., and was one
of the first to assist in its defence. He after-
wards participated in the first battle of Bull Run,
where he commanded a brigade at the com-
mencement of the engagement, and succeeded to
the command of General Hunter's division after
that officer was wounded. He w^as promoted
brigadier-general and received many public testi-
monials for his part in that battle. In the winter
of 1861-62 General Burnside was entrusted with
the organization of an expedition designed to effect
a lodgment upon the shores of North Carolina,
and to carry a force into the interior in the rear
of the Confederate army in Virginia, to cut off
communication with the south. The attack was
to be made by sea, and the first move proposed
was the capture of Roanoke Island. Some twelve
thousand troops were recruited and organized,
sixty-five vessels collected and armed, ani on
Jan. 12, 186?, the fleet put to sea from Hampton
Roads, arriving in Pamlico Sound on the 25th,
after a most tempestuous voyage. The island
was captured on February 8, after several sharp
engagements. Control of Pamlico and Albe-
marle sounds being thus secured, the next step
was the capture of the town on the mainland,
A series of brilliant manoeuvres resulted in the
