Ambrose Burnside had an impressive resume. First serving as a major general in the Civil War, he went on to become both a senator and governor in Rhode Island.
However, his military and political accomplishments are perhaps not what he is most famous for today. Instead, many now associate him first with his popularization of the facial hair style that still bears his name some 150 years later: sideburns.
Ambrose Burnside Before “Sideburns”
Born in Liberty, Ind. on May 23, 1824, Ambrose Burnside first began his military education at New York’s West Point military academy. He graduated in 1847 and was then stationed in Veracuz during the Mexican-American War.
Following the war, Burnside served with the frontier calvary in Nevada and California before being sent to Rhode Island, where he held commander of the state militia for two years. It was also in Rhode Island that he married a local woman named Mary Richmond Bishop in 1852.
