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303:(May 31), Burns had ordered his men to assist an artillery battery that had gotten stuck on a rickety plank bridge over a flooded river. Burns's men helped move the cannon off the bridge and through the mud on the other side, allowing the battery to be in place in time to play a significant role in driving off the last Confederate attack of the day. Even more importantly, a shot fired by that battery severely wounded Confederate General
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341:; he submitted his resignation as a general in the Volunteer army to Lincoln, hoping that the president would turn it down and force Stanton to allow his promotion. Instead, Lincoln accepted Burns's resignation without comment, forcing him to return to his career in the Commissary department. He never commanded troops in combat again, and he never got his promotion to major general.
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Burns commanded the
Philadelphia Brigade for just over a year (October 1861 – November 1862), most notably during McClellan's Peninsular Campaign in the spring and summer of 1862. He led the brigade in a pivotal role at the battle of Savage Station (June 29), a rear-guard action fought to protect the
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Later he became chief commissary officer of the
Department of the Northwest and during the last part of the war was chief commissary of the Department of the South. He briefly served (19 days) as the military mayor of Charleston, South Carolina in 1868. He was appointed on February 19, 1868. On the
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on the following day, fending off a
Confederate attack that had already routed one Union division, and helping to prevent the strung-out Union army from being cut in half. Perhaps his greatest contribution to history occurred earlier in the campaign; during the battle of
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as it retreated from
Richmond. Despite receiving a painful facial wound, Burns and his brigade successfully drove off a Confederate attack and allowed the Union withdrawal to continue without interference. His brigade played another important role in the battle of
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evening of
February 20, 1868, out-going Mayor Gaillard arrived with Burns; Gaillard addressed city council and, after introducing Burns, explained that Burns would not be sworn into office in the normal fashion because of the manner in which he came to office.
337:, as punishment for being a strong supporter of General McClellan, a man Stanton despised (no evidence has yet been found that Stanton ever did this). Despite pleas from friends to not act rashly, Burns decided to take his case directly to President
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265:, when the war began, narrowly avoiding capture when that place fell to Confederate militia forces on April 23, 1861. He returned to Ohio after the fort's capture and was quickly appointed as chief of commissary on the staff of Major General
237:(1856–1857). After the conclusion of that conflict, Burns was part of an expedition sent to Utah in 1857 to quell Mormon unrest. In 1858, he accepted a staff commission to serve as Chief Commissary of Subsistence for
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Ward, David Earl, 1977- (May 2005). The wrong kind of general: the resignation of union brigadier general
William W. Burns. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
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330:. Unfortunately, Burns's promotion was never approved by Congress, and he could not take command of a corps without it. Burns believed that his promotion had been deliberately blocked by
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and
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Burns's facial wound grew infected, causing him to miss several months of fighting as he recuperated. He served as a division commander during the battle of
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of volunteers in
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in May 1861. Burns served in that capacity during McClellan's successful campaign in western
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in 1842 and graduated 28th in his class in 1847, a year late due to failing
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in August 1861. However, Burns wanted a combat command; he got his wish that fall, receiving a promotion to
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without seeing any combat. He was then assigned to various army posts in the
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in the volunteer army. He was among the commanders of the famed
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
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in 1865 and was on duty in the Commissary Department at
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181:(September 3, 1825 – April 19, 1892) was a career
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397:List of American Civil War generals (Union)
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466:(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
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521:Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina
322:and receive a corps command in the
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215:United States Military Academy
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23:William Wallace Burns
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227:Mexican–American War
199:Philadelphia Brigade
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241:, with the rank of
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681:Bennett Jr.
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606:Vanderhorst
586:Vanderhorst
189:during the
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896:Wehman Jr.
831:Cunningham
786:Hutchinson
776:Hutchinson
661:Dawson Jr.
651:Winstanley
441:Daily News
403:References
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187:Union Army
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47:1825-09-03
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375:See also
360:rank of
296:Glendale
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231:Old West
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183:American
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
