SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY

      The worst American General in history?

     General Ambrose Burnside admitted to being “not the best officer under the command of President Lincoln.” The Civil War was raging, and North and South sacrificed their best and brightest at the altar of bigotry, and bitterness.

     This overweight general found himself at the center of attention at least twice. He led a large body of Union men against at smaller Confederate force in Fredericksburg, Virginia. For whatever reason, Burnside camped his men across the Rappahonock River from the city, rather than invade at the earliest opportunity.

    The “dig” was that the smaller Confederate Army reinforced itself during the pause. When the battle was joined, and finished, the Union Army embarrassed itself on the field of battle. Burnside was openly criticized for allowing so much time to lapse, before his invasion force moved into Fredericksburg. The President, so well known for his quips, commented: “Burnside found a way to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory!”

    The General “met his waterloo” at Petersburg, Virginia. His men were facing a formidable Confederate force, and the “pause mentality” that he openly embraced kicked in again. Burnside came up with a plan to dig a tunnel from his lines into and under enemy lines. He happened to have a number of former miners with him, and they set to work.

    It took time, but the mission was accomplished. Having finished the shaft, Union soldiers set gunpowder and fuses beneath their “enemy-brethren.” The fuses were lit and the miners ran from the tunnel, just before a massive explosion shook the ground, and reverberated as far as the nearby city.

    And so the old general found a way to fail again.

    For some unknown reason, he sent his troops into the long, deep ditch created when the tunnel exploded. What might have been a good plan deteriorated quickly. As his brave, but ill-advised Union men stormed the ditch, those Confederate troops who survived the explosion  began to rain lethal leaden bullets upon their enemies. As in Fredericksburg, Burnside realized a humiliating defeat.

      “Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

      There is a difference between failing, learning from one’s failures, and making a habit of failure. Burnside made a habit of failure. His unwillingness to learn from the past, cost him present victory. That is not to say that any of us are perfect, or that we won’t fail multiple times in life, but it is crucial that we develop lessons from our mistakes, and that we plan our present, and future based on the lessons our mistakes provide us.

by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Unconventional Devotions" Copyright 2005