Burnside Takes Command

Sunday, November 9, 1862

General Ambrose Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac. He planned to concentrate the Army around Warrenton and feint a move toward Culpeper or Gordonsville while driving toward Fredericksburg and Richmond. He communicated his intentions to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck in Washington. General Burnside partioned the Army of the Potomac into three divisions, placing General Edwin "Bull" Sumner in charge of the Right Grand Division, General Joseph Hooker in charge of the Center Grand Division, and General William Franklin in charge of the Left Grand Division.¹

References:
¹George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861 - 1865 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1906), 181.