outh of the Rappahannock.
Burnside, in spite, as it appears, of express warnings from Lincoln,
attacked Lee at precisely the point, near the town of Fredericksburg,
where his position was really impregnable. The defeat of the Northern
army was bloody and overwhelming. Burnside's army became all but
mutinous; his corps commanders, especially General Hooker, were loud in
complaint. He was tempted to persist, in spite of all protests, in
some further effort of rashness. Lincoln endeavoured to restrain him.
Halleck, whom Lincoln begged to give a definite military opinion,
upholding or overriding Burnside's, had nothing more useful to offer
than his own resignation. After discussions and recriminations among
all officers concerned, Burnside offered his resignation. Lincoln was
by no means disposed to remove a general upon a first failure or to
side with his subordinates against him, and refused to accept it.
Burnside then offered the impossible alternative of the dismissal of
all his corps commanders for disaffection to him, and on January 25,
1863, his resignation was accepted.

There was much discussion in the Cabinet as to the choice of his
successor. It was thought unwise to give the Eastern army a commander
from the West again. At Chase's instance [Transcriber's note:
insistance?] the senior corps commander who was not too old, General
Hooker, sometimes called "Fighting Joe Hooker," was appointed. He
received a letter, often quoted as the letter of a man much altered
from the Lincoln who had been groping a year earlier after the right
way of treating McClellan: "I have placed you," wrote Lincoln, "at the
head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what
appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you
to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite
satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier,
which of course I like. I also believe that you do not mix politics
with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in
yourself, which is a valuable, if not indispensable, quality. You are
ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm;
but I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have
taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could,
in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most
meritorious and honourable brother officer. I have hear