Union General Ambrose Burnside did not really want to lead the Army of the Potomac

One of the interesting facts about the Battle of Fredericksburg is that Union General Ambrose Burnside did not really want to lead the Army of the Potomac. In November 1862, US President Abraham Lincoln sought to demonstrate the Union war effort's effectiveness before the Northern populace lost faith in his administration. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was persuaded by Lincoln to proceed toward the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. He replaced Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell with Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, hoping for a more aggressive posture against the Confederates in Tennessee, and on November 5, seeing that his replacement of Buell had not stimulated Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan into action issued orders to take command of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. McClellan had stopped General Robert E. Lee's soldiers at Antietam in Maryland, but he was unable to destroy Lee's army, nor did he pursue Lee back into Virginia strongly enough for Lincoln.

Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the IX Corps, took over as McClellan's replacement. Burnside had established a reputation as an independent commander earlier that year in coastal North Carolina, and, unlike McClellan, he had no obvious political ambitions. However, he felt unfit for army-level command and declined the role when it was offered to him. “Had I been asked to take it I should have declined; but, being ordered, I cheerfully obey”, he wrote to a colleague. Another element in Burnside's decision to take the post was his desire to prevent his subordinate, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker (Lincoln's second choice for the post), from taking charge, as Burnside disliked Hooker. On November 10, 1862, Burnside gained command of the army and began preparing a daring strategy to capture Richmond.