Ambrose E. Burnside takes command of the Federal Army of the Potomac and quickly develops a plan to move southeast down the Rappahannock River to the key Virginia town of Fredericksburg.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Ambrose E. Burnside takes command of the Federal Army of the Potomac and quickly develops a plan to move southeast down the Rappahannock River to the key Virginia town of Fredericksburg.
George B. McClellan formally turns the Army of the Potomac over to Ambrose E. Burnside and bids his troops a sad but fond farewell.
George B. McClellan receives orders finally removing him as commander of the Federal army that he had created.
John Pope’s Federal Army of Virginia is absorbed into George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, and Pope is reassigned under protest.
A formal surrender ceremony takes place after the Confederates give up a formidable stronghold on the North Carolina coast.
The Federal army-navy effort to seize North Carolina’s Outer Banks continues, with the potential reward being a strengthening of the naval blockade and the opening of an invasion route into southern Virginia.