Mud March

The Mud March (January 20, 1863 – January 23, 1863) was an attempt by Union Army Major General Ambrose Burnside to attack Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.^[1] After the disastrous defeat of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Burnside was anxious to redeem himself.^[2] He planned for his Army to make a winter march across the Rappahannock River on December 30, 1862.^[2] But he had not informed President Abraham Lincoln of his plan. Lincoln called him back. Three weeks passed and this time, with Lincoln's implied approval, the army marched southward.^[2] However, winter rains made the roads nearly impassable.^[3] After four days the attempt ended in failure.

1. ↑ "Mud March begins". This Day in History. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Perry D Jamieson; Bradford A Wineman, U.S. Army Campaigns of the Civil War: The Maryland and Fredericksburg (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army; Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2015), pp. 54–55
3. ↑ Kathryn Shively Meier. "Weather during the Civil War". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Retrieved 20 July 2016.