William Wallace Burns
(September 3, 1825 – April 19, 1892) was a career American
soldier who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, reaching the rank of
brigadier general
in the volunteer army. He was among the commanders of the
famed
Philadelphia
Brigade.
Birth and early years
Burns was
born in Coshocton,
Ohio
, son of future U.S. congressman Joseph Burns and a
distant relative of George Washington through his mother's
family. He entered the United States
Military Academy
in 1842 and graduated 28th in his class in 1847, a
year late due to failing English as a freshman. He accepted
a commission as a
second
lieutenant in the
infantry and served
in the
Mexican-American War
without seeing any combat. He was then assigned to various army
posts in the
Old West and Southwest,
marrying in Arkansas in 1849.
He served on recruiting duty in Philadelphia
from 1854-1856 and then as a regimental Quartermaster in Florida
during the Third Seminole
War
(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
Albert Sidney Johnston, with the rank
of
captain.
Civil War
Burns during the Civil War
Burns was
stationed at Fort Smith,
Arkansas
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
George B. McClellan in May 1861. Burns served in
that capacity during McClellan's successful campaign in western
Virginia that summer, and was promoted to the
Regular Army rank of
Major
in August 1861.
However, Burns wanted a combat command; he
got his wish that fall, receiving a promotion to Brigadier General of Volunteers in
September, and being placed in command of the Philadelphia Brigade
in October, after the death of their previous commander at the
battle of Ball's
Bluff
.
Burns commanded the Philadelphia Briagde for just over a year
(October 1861-November 1862), most notably during McClellan's
Pennisular 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
Army of the Potomac as it retreated away
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
Glendale 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
Fair
Oaks (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' 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
Joseph E. Johnston, who was replaced after the
battle by
Robert E. Lee.
Burns' 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
Fredericksburg in December 1862, afterwards
he moved on to the Western theater, believing that he was going to
be promoted to
Major General and
receive a corps command in the
Army of the Cumberland under
William S. Rosecrans. Unfortunately, Burns'
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
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, 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
Abraham Lincoln; 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'
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.
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 as the military
mayor of Charleston, South Carolina in 1868.
He
received the brevet of brigadier
general in 1865 and was on duty in the Commissary Department at
Washington
until 1889, when he retired, with the Regular Army rank of colonel.
He is
buried at Arlington National Cemetery
.
See also
Notes
References
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