Burnside's main problem was that he was rather one-dimensional on the field. He failed to do things properly on his own initiative.

However, he did good work commanding the North Carolina expedition. It was a joint army/navy operation that caused some havoc and forced the surrender of some garrisons, giving the Union a good base. It was one of the early Union successes. Strangely, few know anything about it.

He also was able to repel Longstreet during the Knoxville campaign.

As for the bridge at Antietam, what I've read of it suggests McClellan shares part of the blame. He had badly muddled the command structure and treated Burnside poorly in the process.

Fredricksburg was a fiasco, and considerable credit for that was due to McClellan as well. Yes, even though he wasn't there, his lack of initiative had lead Lincoln to take a very hands on approach, and force Burnside into making a winter advance. It might have worked, but the weather turned on him. Also, Burnside had a struggle with the slow moving bureaucracy that characterized all Army of the Potomac affairs. What was meant to be an unopposed advance across the river turned into a heavily contested affair.

Anyway, while Burnside was not a military genius and made several large blunders, he did have his moments.

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