Mud March ( American Civil War ) The Mud March was an abortive attempt at a winter offensive in January 1863 by Union Army Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside in the American Civil War . History . Following his defeat in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 , Burnside was desperate to restore his reputation and the morale of his Army of the Potomac . The day after Christmas , he began making preparations for a new offensive . This would involve feints at the fords upstream of Fredericksburg to distract the Confederates while he took the bulk of the army across the Rappahanock seven miles south of town . Finally , he planned for a cavalry operation on a grand scale , something that had never been done so far in the Eastern Theater , where Union horsemen had performed poorly and suffered repeated embarrassments at the hands of their Confederate foes . Burnside detailed 1500 troopers for this planned operation . 500 of them would create a distracting feint in the Warrenton - Culpeper direction and then withdraw back to Falmouth . Meanwhile , the main force was to cross at Kelly ' s Ford and swing south and west in a wide arc , all the way around and south of Richmond and ultimately arriving at Suffolk on the coast where a Union force under Brig . Gen John J . Peck was based . Then transport ships would take them back to Falmouth . It was an imaginative and inspired plan , but once again doomed to failure . The cavalry set off on their journey , but almost as soon as they reached Kelly ' s Ford , Burnside received a telegram from President Lincoln stating flatly " No major army movements are to be made without first informing the White House . " He was left bewildered how the president found out since he had told no one except a few intimates about his plans , and even most of the army ' s high - ranking officers didn ' t know about it . As things would have it , Burnside was done in by conspirators in his own ranks , specifically Brig . Gen John Newton and Brig . Gen John Cochrane , division and brigade commanders in the VI Corps . The day after New Year ' s , the two took a leave of absence and headed up to Washington with the intention of meeting with Senator Henry Wilson and Congressman Moses Odell of New York , both important heads of Congressional defense committees . The generals forgot that Congress was in recess for the holidays and neither representative in town just then . As Cochrane himself had been a congressman at the start of the war , he had political connections and thus got in a meeting with Secretary of State Seward , who then arranged for them to meet the president . As the senior of the two officers , Newton spoke first . He told Lincoln that the Army of the Potomac was in terrible shape now , such that it would likely fall apart if Burnside tried to start another campaign . However , his choice of wording was vague and he failed to properly explain what he meant . Later on , Newton would argue " I could not have told the president that none of the privates had any confidence in General Burnside . " , even though this was the principal reason he ' d come here . In the event , Lincoln assumed he was simply meeting with two scheming officers who were out to take their superior ' s job , something he ' d seen so many times up to this point as to become thoroughly irritated and fed up with it . Cochrane assured that neither of them had any ulterior motives and simply wished to keep the president informed on developments he needed to know . Newton then repeated his warning that conditions had gotten to the point where the army would disintegrate in the event Burnside lost another battle along the Rappahannock . The two then left while adding that Lincoln ought to look into things himself . After receiving Lincoln ' s telegram , Burnside headed to the White House himself to investigate . The president told him that two generals who would remain anonymous had let it be known about his plans and the army ' s deteriorating condition . Burnside angrily protested that these officers , whoever they were , deserved to be court - martialed . General Henry Halleck ( who was in the room just then ) agreed . More importantly , Lincoln argued that there seemed to be a considerable disconnect between the commanding general and his subordinates . Burnside then requested a private discussion with the president . Here , he proceeded to denounce Secretary of War Stanton and General Halleck , arguing that " it would be for the good of the nation if both were replaced " . He also added that none of his senior officers supported his plan for a midwinter offensive . Finally , the general said that the way things were going , he might as well resign both command of the Army of the Potomac and his commission and leave the military entirely . Once Burnside left , Lincoln told Halleck that none of his generals were willing to cooperate with his plans , and he ( Halleck ) ought to go down to Fredericksburg himself and assess the situation . Halleck for his part had no advice to offer Burnside except to destroy the Confederate army while taking as minimal damage as possible . Lincoln also told the latter to reconsider resigning from the army . So Burnside revived his plan but reversed the original sequence . Instead of crossing the Rappahannock south of Fredericksburg , he initially planned to move upstream and cross at U . S . Ford , due north of the Chancellorsville crossroads . The offensive began with a westward move on January 20 , 1863 , in unseasonably mild weather . The Mud March was Burnside ' s final attempt to command the Army of the Potomac . Lincoln replaced him with Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker on January 26 , 1863 .