🏆 Hall of Fame ’24 Photo: Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
General Ambrose Burnside
- Style
- Mutton Chops with Mustache
- Peak Era
- 1860s
- Born
- 1824
- Hall of Fame
- Inducted 2024
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
About General Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824–1881) was a West Point graduate, inventor of a breech-loading carbine, and a Union general during the American Civil War. He won early notice for a successful coastal campaign in North Carolina in 1862 and was later given command of the Army of the Potomac, a post he reportedly did not want.
His tenure at the top was brief and difficult, ending after the Union defeat at Fredericksburg in December 1862. He later commanded in the western theater and at the siege of Petersburg, where the failed assault known as the Battle of the Crater damaged his reputation further.
After the war he was elected governor of Rhode Island three times and then served in the U.S. Senate. He was also the first president of the National Rifle Association.
Why the Stach Became Iconic
Burnside's facial hair was unlike anyone else's: a thick mustache connected to bushy side whiskers that swept down his cheeks, with the chin left clean-shaven. The arrangement was so distinctive that it was named for him, "burnsides," and the syllables later flipped into the modern word "sideburns."
Few people in history can claim that their grooming entered the dictionary. Burnside can.
Notable Moments
- Burnside Expedition, North Carolina (1862)
- Commander, Army of the Potomac (1862–1863)
- Governor of Rhode Island (1866–1869)
- U.S. Senator from Rhode Island (1875–1881)
- The Burnside carbine he patented saw wide use by Union cavalry.
- The word "sideburns" is a reversal of "burnsides," which was coined for his whiskers.
- He was a popular figure in Rhode Island politics despite his mixed wartime record.
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