Gen Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard (b 1818 -d 1893)

[mikeejay2]

Gen Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard (b 1818 -d 1893) Beauregard was born at the "Contreras" plantation outside New Orleans. He attended New Orleans schools and then went to a "French school" in New York, City. He graduated from West Point in 1838 and excelled both as an artilleryman and engineer. During the Mexican War, Beauregard served as an engineer under Winfield Scott. He was brevetted to captain for the battles of Contreras and Churubusco and again to major for Chapultepec, where he was wounded in the shoulder and thigh. Beauregard briefly entered politics in his hometown and was narrowly defeated in the election for mayor of New Orleans in 1858. He was chief engineer in charge of drainage in New Orleans from 1858 to 1861, and directed the building of the federal custom house there. He returned to teach at West Point, where he rose to become the superintendent January 1861, but resigned after only five days when Louisiana seceded. Beauregard entered the Confederate Army as a brigadier general in March 1861, but was promoted in July to be one of the eventual eight full generals in the Confederate Army; his date of rank made him the fifth most senior general. He recommended stationing strong forces to protect New Orleans, but was overruled by President Davis. Hence began the friction between Beauregard and Davis that would intensify as years progressed. His first assignment from the government was command of the forces in Charleston, where he opened fire on Fort Sumter. This was the start of the Civil War, but no one was killed in the exchange. Beauregard and Joe Johnston led Confederate forces to victory in the First Battle of Bull Run. In Mar 1862, Beauregard was transferred to Tennessee and assumed command of Confederate forces at Shiloh when Gen A S Johnston was killed. Although successful the first day of battle, (April 6) Beauregard called off the attack prematurely. He was forced to retreat the second day after Grant received reinforcements and counterattacked. Beauregard later was forced to retreat from his base of supplies, Corinth, Mississippi, by forces under Halleck. He then turned over the command of the army to Bragg. Beauregard then took command of coastal defenses in Georgia and South Carolina. He successfully defended Charleston from repeated Union attacks from 1862 to 1864. In 1864, he assisted Lee in the defense of Richmond. He defeated Butler in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign near Drewry’s Bluff. He followed this victory with a desperate defense of Petersburg. His tiny 2,200-man force resisted an assault by 16,000 Federals, known as the 2nd Battle of Petersburg. He gambled by withdrawing his Bermuda Hundred defenses to reinforce Petersburg. He assumed that Butler would not capitalize on the opening. His gamble succeeded, and he held Petersburg long enough for Lee's army to arrive. Self-confident in the wake of this victory over Butler, Beauregard proposed to Lee and Davis that he lead a great invasion of the North, which would defeat Grant and Butler and win the war. Instead, Beauregard was sent to assist Joe Johnston in his campaign against Sherman in the Carolinas. They surrendered to Sherman near Durham, North Carolina, in April 1865. After the war, Beauregard spoke in favor of civil rights and voting for the recently freed slaves, an opinion uncommon among high-ranking Confederates. General Beauregard declined offers to take command of the armies of Romania (1866) and Egypt (1869). Beauregard died in New Orleans and is interred in the tomb of the Army of Tennessee in the historic Metairie Cemetery. Today he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but during the war he rarely used his first name and signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.

[Gil R.]

Copied, thanks.

[jkBluesman]

Have you found any evidence, why Beauregard left the army after Corinth? I have read that he was sick and asked for a leave but did not wait for the reply to arrive before he left.
Before Lee started the Gettysburg campaign, he had thought of a scheme that involved Beauregard: The Napoleon in Gray should seem to assemble an army in Richmond to threaten the Army of the Potomac who would have to watch its back. Lee wanted Beauragard because of his high reputation in the North.

[Gil R.]

Okay, it was high time that Beauregard get done, so it's done. I did do quite a bit of rewriting, for various reasons.


Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard (b. 1818, d. 1893). Beauregard, who usually omitted his first name and thus went by the initials “G.T.,” was born at the “Contreras” plantation outside New Orleans. He attended New Orleans schools, had further schooling in New York City, and ultimately graduated from West Point in 1838. During the Mexican War, he served as an engineer under Gen. Winfield Scott and received brevets to captain and then major for his conduct in the battles of Contreras, Churubusco and Chapultepec, where he was wounded in the shoulder and thigh. Frustrated by a lack of opportunities to advance after the war, Beauregard returned to New Orleans, serving as superintendent engineer of U.S. Customs installations from 1853 to 1860 and being narrowly defeated in the mayoral election of 1858. Appointed superintendent of West Point on January 23, 1861, he resigned after only five days when Louisiana seceded. Beauregard entered the Confederate Army as a brigadier general on March 1; on August 31, he would be promoted to full general, his date of rank making him the fifth most senior of the eight men who would hold that rank. His first assignment from the new government was to command the forces in Charleston, where on April 12 he opened fire on the Federal garrison in Fort Sumter, initiating the Civil War. Three months later, on July 21, 1861, the widely hailed “Hero of Sumter” and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston led their combined forces to victory in the war’s first major battle, First Bull Run. Transferred to the western theater that January and put under the command of Gen. Albert S. Johnston, Beauregard assumed command of Confederate forces at Shiloh when Johnston was killed on April 6, the first day of battle. Although poised for a great victory by dusk, Beauregard called off the attack prematurely, and was forced to retreat the next day after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant received reinforcements and counterattacked. Beauregard later was forced to abandon his base of supplies at Corinth, Mississippi. Having permanently fallen out of favor with Pres. Jefferson Davis, he relinquished command of the Army of Mississippi to Gen. Braxton Bragg, the president’s friend. Finally reassigned by Davis, Beauregard headed to Charleston to command coastal defenses in the area, using innovative techniques to protect the harbor from repeated attacks. In April 1864, Beauregard was assigned to the Department of North Carolina, which stretched up to Virginia’s James River – an area that was about to come under attack in support of Grant’s Overland Campaign. On May 5, the landing of Gen. Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James touched off two weeks of fighting in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and Beauregard successfully checked the incursion and saved nearby Richmond. A month later, he achieved victory in the Second Battle of Petersburg by successfully gambling that if he reinforced his outnumbered force with men from Bermuda Hundred, Butler would fail to capitalize on the opening before further reinforcements arrived. Later that year, with Petersburg under siege, Beauregard was removed from the Virginia theater because he had once again irritated Davis. Sent to Georgia after Atlanta had already fallen, and forbidden by Davis to command forces in the field, Beauregard had little to do other than oversee evacuations as Gen. William T. Sherman advanced through Georgia and the Carolinas. After the war, Beauregard worked in both the public and private sectors, and also wrote war memoirs designed to vindicate his actions. In 1872, he was especially active in supporting the Reform Party, which attempted to give freed slaves voting rights and political influence in order to lure them away from the Republicans. Beauregard died in New Orleans on February 18, 1893 and is interred in the tomb of the Army of Tennessee in the historic Metairie Cemetery.

[Gil R.]

By the way, I can't help but wonder whether his ratings should be adjusted down a bit. He's currently at 5-5-5-5. But shouldn't Command and Initiative perhaps be 4's?

[jkBluesman]

Command maybe, but for his actions at Richmond at Petersburg I would keep the 5 for initiative.

[Gil R.]

Okay, Command's down to four.