Battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines's Mill: Burnside and Army

This failure produced some dissatisfaction, and Burnside was soon afterward superseded in the command of the Army of the Potomac by General Joseph Hooker. It was the misfortune, not the fault of the gallant Burnside, that he did not succeed at Fredericksburg. The Army of the Potomac now went into winter-quarters on the borders of the Rappahannock.

Hooker's first care was to prevent desertion, secure the return of absentees on furlough, and to weed noxious materials out of the army. Disloyal officers were dismissed as soon as they were discovered; and the evils of idleness were prevented by keeping the soldiers employed. The express trains in the service of the Government were regularly searched, and all property belonging to private citizens was confiscated or destroyed. The army was comfortably hutted; and important changes were made in its organization and its staff department. The cavalry, hitherto scattered among the grand divisions and without organization, as a corps, were consolidated, and were soon placed in a condition of greater efficiency than had ever before been known in the service; and to improve them, they were sent out upon raids within the Confederate lines whenever the condition of the roads would permit. The region between Bull's Run and the Rapid Anne became the theatre of many daring exploits by the horsemen of both armies.