What is Mud March?
[[File:Winter campaigning mud march.jpg|thumb|right|350px|{{Center|The Army of the Potomac on the move. Sketched near Falmouth, Virginia, January 21, 1863}}]] The '''Mud March''' (January 20, 1863 – January 23, 1863) was an attempt by [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] Army [[Major General]] [[Ambrose Burnside]] to attack [[Robert E. Lee|Lee's]] [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] [[Army of Northern Virginia]].<ref name=mmbHIST>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mud-march-begins |title=Mud March begins |website=This Day in History |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC |access-date=20 July 2016}}</ref> After the [[Disaster|disastrous]] [[wikt:defeat|defeat]] of the [[Army of the Potomac]] at the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]], Burnside was anxious to [[Redemption|redeem]] himself.<ref name=Jamieson54>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</ref> He planned for his Army to make a winter march across the [[Rappahannock River]] on December 30, 1862.<ref name=Jamieson54/> But he had not informed [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] of his plan. Lincoln called him back. Three weeks passed and this time, with Lincoln's [[wikt:imply|implied]] approval, the army marched [[south]]ward.<ref name=Jamieson54/> However, [[winter]] [[rain]]s made the roads nearly [[wikt:impassable|impassable]].<ref name=MierEV>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/weather_during_the_civil_war |title=Weather during the Civil War |author=Kathryn Shively Meier |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Foundation for the Humanities |access-date=20 July 2016}}</ref> After four days the attempt ended in [[failure]]. == Background == On December 15, 1862, Burnside's [[Union Army|Union army]] withdrew from the Battle of Fredericksburg back to [[Falmouth, Vir