Effect of The Carbine On Burnside's Career
Though he was actually a poor military officer, Ambrose Burnside rose through the ranks partly because his carbine was so well known. He was pressured by President Lincoln several times to take command of the Union Army of the Potomac. He repeatedly declined, saying "I was not competent to command such a large army as this." When he eventually did accept command, he led the Army of the Potomac to defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg. The battle and the subsequent retreat left Burnside's "officers complaining loudly to the White House and the War Department about his incompetence." He also performed poorly at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and a court of inquiry blamed him for the Union failure at the Battle of the Crater.
Read more about this topic: Burnside Carbine
Famous quotes containing the words effect of, effect and/or career:
“The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“The use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched by a wand, which makes us dance and run about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)