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(1824-1881), commander of the Army of the Potomac, graduated at West Point in 1847. He invented a breech-loading rifle, retired from the army and engaged in business. In the Civil War he led a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run and was in 1862 placed in command of an expedition to North Carolina; this force captured Roanoke Island on February 8, and Newbern March 14. He was now made a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, and rendered important services at the battle of South Mountain and at Antietam where he held the stone bridge against repeated attacks. In November, 1862, he succeeded McClellan in command of the army. On December 13 was fought the fatal and ill-advised battle of Fredericksburg, and in January, 1863, General Burnside was superseded by Hooker. Having been appointed to the command of the Department of the Ohio he kept down treason, and was later in 1863 besieged in Knoxville by Longstreet. He acted as corps commander in the Army of the Potomac at the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, etc. In 1866-68 he was Republican Governor of Rhode Island, and in 1875-81 U. S. Senator from the same State.