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Rhode Island Civil War Generals
by
Mark H. Dunkelman
Ambrose Everett Burnside
There was never any doubt about who was Rhode Island’s major hero of the Civil War.  But oddly enough, he wasn’t a native Rhode Islander.  Ambrose Everett Burnside was born in Indiana, the son of a former slave-holder from South Carolina.  After graduating from West Point, Burnside served in the army during the Mexican War.  When that conflict ended, he did a short tour of duty at Fort Adams in Newport — his introduction to Rhode Island.  Three years of service in New Mexico were followed by a return to Newport, marriage to a Providence woman named Mary Bishop, and his resignation from the army.  From 1853 to 1858 Burnside manufactured in Bristol a breech-loading rifle of his invention.  But the business failed and Burnside left Rhode Island to take a position with the Illinois Central Railroad under his friend George B. McClellan.
  
Two days after the firing on Fort Sumter, Rhode Island Governor William Sprague telegraphed Burnside, asking him to lead the 1st Rhode Island Infantry to the war.  Rapid promotions resulted from Burnside’s meritorious service at Bull Run and his successful expedition to North Carolina.  But as his commands grew, Burnside’s abilities appeared to wane.  His handling of the left wing at the Battle of Antietam was roundly criticized.  Then followed his brief career as commander of the Army of the Potomac, made infamous by the terrible tragedy of Fredericksburg and the farce called the Mud March.  His service during the remainder of the war was marked by further ineptness at Knoxville and during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg.  But his lackluster performance as a military man was countered by his bravery, honesty, and fame.  When he returned to his adopted state of Rhode Island, its citizens rewarded him with terms as governor and United States senator, and first rank of its heroes of the Civil War.  Burnside was serving as senator when he died in Bristol in 1881.  He is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.

Of course, Rhode Island honored other of her soldiers and sailors during the years after the war for their services in suppressing the rebellion.  But time would bring greater fame to Burnside, while obscuring the deeds of other of the state’s veterans.  Today, most Rhode Islanders are at least familiar with the large equestrian statue of Burnside in Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence.  Vestiges of the six native Rhode Islanders who served the Union as general officers (full, not brevet rank) are harder to find, and it’s doubtful if the average citizen of our state could name even one of them.  The six Rhode Island Civil War generals deserve a better fate than the obscurity that shadows their accomplishments.  Let’s get reacquainted with these once prominent Rhode Islanders.
Richard Arnold
Richard Arnold, son of Rhode Island governor and United States congressman Lemuel Arnold, was born in Providence in 1828.  His was an old Rhode Island family, and included the infamous Benedict Arnold.  An 1850 graduate of West Point, Richard Arnold initially saw service as an artilleryman in Florida, Maine, and California.  Then he was selected by General John Wool as a staff officer.  For six or seven years he was the general’s aide-de-camp and was involved in Indian affairs in Oregon and Washington.  When the Civil War began, Arnold became captain of Battery D, 2nd United States Artillery.
  
As the Union army’s fortunes began to wane at the First Battle of Bull Run on the afternoon of July 21, 1861, General Irwin McDowell and his staff made an effort to rally troops on the high ground near the Matthews house.  His assistant adjutant general, Captain James Fry, later wrote, “There, I went to Arnold’s battery as it came by, and advised that he unlimber and make a stand as a rallying point, which he did, saying he was in fair condition and ready to fight as long as there was any fighting to be done.  But all efforts failed.”  Arnold joined regular units of infantry and cavalry in an attempt to cover the rear of the routed Union army, and in the process his battery lost all of its guns.

Despite his disaster at Bull Run, Arnold was in command of the artillery of General William B. Franklin’s division at the beginning of the Peninsula fighting.  Soon after, Franklin took command of the newly organized 6th Corps, and appointed Arnold his acting inspector general.  As such, he was brevetted major for services rendered at the Battle of Savage’s Station.  Then a bout with typhoid fever led him to a three months sick leave.

In late 1862, after his recovery, Arnold traveled to Louisiana and a new position as brigadier general and chief of artillery of the Department of the Gulf.  As such he participated in the Port Hudson and Red River campaigns, and in the shakeup following General Nathaniel P. Banks’s failure in the latter campaign, he was put in command of the cavalry.  During the operations against Mobile, General Arnold was chief of artillery, and his 25 guns and 16 mortars were instrumental in forcing the surrender of Fort Morgan in August 1864.  After that campaign, the general obtained a leave of absence.  Then, in November 1864, the war at the front ended for Richard Arnold.  He was assigned to a retirement board for disabled officers in Wilmington, Delaware, and there he sat out the remainder of hostilities.
  
At the end of the war he was brevetted to the rank of Major general in both the regular and volunteer service, but his regular rank was captain of the 5th United States Artillery.  In 1866 he was assigned to the command of a battery stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The remainder of his life was spent on a succession of posts.  In 1875 he was promoted major, and in 1882 he rose to lieutenant colonel.  Five days after that promotion, while doing duty as acting inspector general of the Department of the East, General Arnold died at Governor’s Island, New York.  He is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.
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