Lee expected the Union would wait till the spring thaw to make a move against him.    Burnside on the other hand hatched a brilliant series of undetected maneuvers that allowed him to get his huge Union Army bivouacked in northern Virginia past Lee and down in to central Virginia before Lee realized what had happened.    But the weather and politics intervened to spoil Burnside's surprise winter campaign against Lee.    What resulted was the Battle of Fredericksburg in central Virginia along the Rappahannock River.    It was the largest battle ever to occur on the North or South American Continents.    Even though Burnside managed to temporarily fool the masterful Robert E. Lee by getting the bulk of his forces to the Fredericksburg vicinity first, Lee countered the move by sending 'His Ole War Horse', General James Longstreet and his wing of the Confederate Army to take up a strong position on the opposite bank of the ice choked Rappahannock River on the high ground over-looking the town, called Marye's Heights.    Burnside needed pontoon boats to form bridges to cross the river.    But the boats that Burnside had relied on to get across the icy river failed to arrive on time and Lee was able to reach Fredericksburg and fortify his positions there before Burnside could cross the river to open the battle.    When the boats finally arrived it was too late.    The opportunity to get between Lee and Richmond was gone.

      During December 1862, and the winter Battle of Fredericksburg, more of Burnside's subordinate officer's, also with political influence in Congress, continued to quarrel often with Burnside about the attack on Fredericksburg and any new strategy proposed by their beleaguered commander.    President Lincoln never doubted but supported Burnside, his continued choice for commander in the field.     In a letter to Burnside, President Lincoln wrote, "I have just read your commanding general's preliminary report of the Battle of Fredericksburg".    "Although you were not successful, the attempt was not an error, nor the failure, other than an accident".    "The courage with which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against an entrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success with which you crossed and re-crossed the river in the face of the enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a great army commander, which will yet give victory to the cause of the country and of popular government".    "Condoling with the mourners for the dead, and sympathizing with the severely wounded, I congratulate you that the number is comparatively so small".    "I tender to you, your officers and soldiers, the thanks of the Nation".

      Lincoln wrote his letter in response to Burnside's offer to resign and he refused the offer.    Halleck and Stanton agreed, but they worried about Burnside's inattention to his growing political criticism engineered through Congress by two of his top officers, Major General William B. Franklin (a Pennsylvania descendant of Benjamin Franklin) and General Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker (of Massachusetts).    Hooker vying for the boss's job lacked the political wherewithal to undermine Burnside on his own.    But Franklin provided the political muscle he needed in Congress to politically finish off Burnside.    Congressional support for Hooker was assured with the additional support of the other officers also wanting advancement in the Army of the Potomac.    Hooker used Franklin's influence to get Congress to apply the needed pressure on Lincoln to replace Burnside with, who else, "Fighting Joe".    At first Burnside seemed completely unconcerned about Hooker's growing threat to his position.    To accurately understand Burnside, the following words of Rev. Agustus Woodbury, who knew Burnside better than any other man, years later in his eulogy to Burnside wrote, "While all must acknowledge his administrative and executive ability and his sense of responsibility, he yet did not have that measure of caution in dealing with other men, which seems to be required....."    "He took too much for granted.    He regarded a verbal promise as binding as a written one.    He believed that others understood his plans as clearly as they were marked out in his own mind.    He trusted when he should have watched.    Never knowing by experience the nature of intrigue or double dealing, he could not be made to see there was anything in others which justified any suspicion of their motives, or any thought of their untruthfulness.    He could not understand how any man could work against him or become his enemy, or even his rival.    His own heart never had an ungenerous feeling, and he could not conceive how any other heart could cherish that".

      It is ironic the Union Congress could not forgive Burnside for essentially making the same mistakes at Fredericksburg that Lee (mildly criticized by the Confederate Congress) made at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg, and the blunder Grant made a year later at Cold Harbor, even though their men in the ranks as well as their Presidents actually forgave all three generals.    The harsh reality of war meant Grant, Lee and Burnside ended up sending thousands of men to their deaths to no avail in each case in a hopeless bloody mealy leaving all 3 men to believe they needed one last big battle to put an end to the nation's nightmare and the human slaughter.    Ultimately Hooker ended up copying most of Burnside's spring 1863 offensive strategy when he was selected to replace his far more qualified former Army of the Potomac commander.    Unfortunately Hooker carried out the plan with disastrous results at the Battle of Cancellorsville less than four months later, which brought Union moral to its lowest point in the war.

      Major General William B. Franklin, of Pennsylvania; was relieved of command by Abraham Lincoln on January 25, 1863, due to his inflamitory letter about Burnside and his terrible performance as Union Army Left Wing Commander at the First Battle of Fredericksburg.    Agressive action by the Union Left Wing under Franklin against Lee's right was the key to the battle as planned by Franklin with Burnside's approval.    The actions of the Union Right Wing by Hooker and others against Marye's Heights was assumed to be a diversion in strength to occupy Lee's attention so Franklin could succeed.    Although hesitant at first to concur with his Generals, in the end this two-fold strategy is probably why Burnside agreed with his generals to go ahead and fight Lee at Fredericksburg.    Burnside hesitated since it appeared the early initiative had been lost due to the tardiness of the arrival boats needed to the Army of the Potomac across the icy Rappahannock.    Lee was caught off guard with Burnside's winter offensive in to Central Virginia.    The dealy gave Lee time to react and arrive at Fredericksburg in force.    After Fredericksburg, the War Department sent Franklin to command the 19th Corps, Army of the Gulf, in Louisiana.    Franklin was wounded at the Battle of Sabine Pass, but being personna-non-grata to his former friends in Congress, he resigned from the military with no future prospects for advancement.    After the war he moved to Connecticut and ran the Colt Fire Arms Company for 2 decades.

Major General John Newton; of Virginia, who graduated 2nd in his class at West Point, initially escaped discipline.    He led his troops well at the 2nd Battle of Fredericksburg under Sedgwick and temporarily commanded the 1st Corps when Reynolds was killed at Gettysburg.    After the Mine Run Campaign in 1863, he was demoted to Brigadier General by the War Department and commanded a small garrison at Key West Florida to the end of the war.

Major General William F. "Baldy" Smith, of Vermont; was a close friend of McClellan and a supporter for McClellan's Democratic bid for the Presidency against Lincoln.    He co-authored the Franklin letter to Lincoln calling for Burnside to be dismissed.    Smith was demoted to Brigadier General by Congress for his misconduct and insubordination.   He was sent west and co-commanded the 'Cracker Line' relief of Chattanooga.    Afterwards Grant had him re-instated as Major General and Smith commanded the 18th Corps at Cold Harbor and Bermuda Hundred, but Smith became embroiled in another argument with Meade and Hancock over the Battle of Cold Harbor and was again relieved of command.    He later resigned his commission in the military and was later given numerous government construction contracts as a Civil Engineer after the war.

Brigadier General John Cochrane of New York; a McClellan man, was a member of Burnside's staff, who informed the others about all of Burnside's plans, making it easier for them to undermine what Burnside tried to do with the concurrence of Hooker and McClellan, during the Mud Marches.    He most likely came up with the name "Mud March" as a way to discredit Burnside in Congress.    Cochrane (a friend of Daniel Sickles) was also a high profile Tammany Hall, New York Lawyer and a Congressman before the war.    Although he fought for the Union, Cochrane felt the North was unfair to the South and Lincoln was the cause of the war.    After the war for political reasons Cochrane completely changed his position on the matter.    He resigned, rather than be dismissed from service by the War Department, after the Battle of Chancellorsville, for incompetence.    Cochrane was later nominated the Vice Presidential running-mate with John C. Fremont and unsuccessfully ran against President Lincoln and Andrew Johnson in the Republican Primary election of 1864.    After the 1864 elections 'Boss Cochrane' had considerable influence in New York politics by heading and controlling Veterans Affairs and the use of Veterans Pension disbursements to control voting in later 19th century New York City Machine Party Politics.