Sumner was badly shaken by the disaster to Sedgwick and heavy casualties to other Union forces. Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin wanted to attack with his fresh VI Corps, but Sumner, who was senior to him, ordered him to hold back. McClellan sustained Sumner. Shortly before being fired from command of the army in October, McClellan wrote to the War Department a letter recommending that Sumner be relieved of duty, as he doubted that his age and health would permit him to survive another campaign, but nothing came of this and when Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside succeeded to the command of the Army of the Potomac, he grouped the corps in "grand divisions" and appointed Sumner to command the Right Grand Division. In this capacity, he took part in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg, in which the II Corps, now commanded by Major General Darius N. Couch, suffered heavy casualties in frontal assaults against Confederate troops fortified at Marye's Heights. Transfer and death Soon afterward, on Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's appointment to command the Army of the Potomac on January 26, 1863, Sumner was relieved of his command at his own request. He was then reassigned to a new command in the Department of the Missouri, effective in the spring. Before that, Sumner went to his daughter's home in Syracuse, New York, to rest, where he fell ill with fever. He died on March 21, 1863 and was buried in Syracuse's Oakwood Cemetery. His two sons, Brigadier General Edwin Vose Sumner, Jr. and Major General Samuel S. Sumner, both served in the Civil War and the Spanish–American War. Grave Sumner is buried in Section 8, Lot 1 of Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse. Part of the Teall family plot, the gravesite has some structural problems and issues of disrepair. The Onondaga County Civil War Round Table was raising funds to repair the grave and the general area. See also List of American Civil War generals (Union) Notes References Bertbrong, Donald J. The Southern Cheyenne. The civilization of the American Indian series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. . Grinnell, George Bird. The Fighting Cheyenne. The civilization of the American Indian series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956. . First published 1915 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Morris, John D. Sword of the Border: Major General Jacob Jennings Brown, 1775–1828. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2000. . Territorial Kansas Online biographical sketch