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Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard
(BO-rih-gahrd) (May 28, 1818 – February 20,
1893), best known as a general for the Confederate
Army during the American Civil War, was also a
writer, civil servant, and inventor. 

==Early life==
Beauregard was born at the "Contreras" plantation
in St. Bernard Parish, outside of New Orleans,
Louisiana, to a white Creole family. His nickname
to many of his army friends was The Little Creole
(and also Bory, The Little Frenchman, Felix, and
The Little Napoleon). He trained at the United
States Military Academy at West Point, graduating
in 1838, and excelled both as an artilleryman and
military engineer. He served as a engineer under
Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War.
There, he was brevet (military) | brevetted to
captain for the battles of Battle of Contreras |
Contreras and Battle of Churubusco | Churubusco
and again to major for Battle of Chapultepec |
Chapultepec, where he was wounded in the shoulder
and thigh in 1847. Although little is known of his
married life, he was the brother-in-law of future
Confederate diplomat John Slidell.

Beauregard briefly entered into politics in his
home town, and was narrowly defeated in the
election for Mayor of New Orleans in 1858. He was
chief engineer in charge of draining New Orleans
from 1858 to 1861, and directed the building of
the Federal customs house. He then returned to
teach at West Point, where he rose to become the
Superintendent of the Military Academy in January
of 1861, but resigned after only a few days when
Louisiana secession | seceded from the Union
(American Civil War)|Union.  

==Civil War==
Beauregard entered the Confederate Army as a
brigadier general in March of 1861, but was
promoted on July 21 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 Jefferson Davis; this started friction
between Beauregard and Davis that would only get
worse as years progressed.

Beauregard's first assignment from the Confederate
Government was command of the forces in
Charleston, South Carolina, where on April 12,
1861, he opened fire on the Union-held Battle of
Fort Sumter | Fort Sumter, regarded as the start
of the American Civil War. He and General Joseph
E. Johnston led Confederate forces to victory in
the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas),
where they defeated Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, one
of Beauregard's West Point classmates.  During the
First Battle of Bull Run, he employed Quaker
Gun|Quaker Guns, something he would use in
numerous other battles.

Beauregard was transferred to Tennessee and
assumed command of Confederate forces at the
Battle of Shiloh when General Albert Sidney
Johnston was killed. Although successful the first
day of battle, April 6, 1862, Beauregard called
off the attack prematurely, assuming that the
Union army was defeated. He was forced to retreat
the second day after Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
was reinforced and counterattacked. Beauregard
later was forced to retreat from his base of
supplies, Corinth, Mississippi, by forces under
Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck.

Beauregard successfully defended Charleston, South
Carolina, from repeated Union attacks 1862 –
1864. In 1864 he assisted Robert E. Lee in the
defense of Richmond, Virginia, defeating Benjamin
Franklin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler in
the Bermuda Hundred Campaign near Drewry's Bluff.
Success against Butler, his most impressive
military victory, caused grandiose thoughts to
fill his mind. He proposed to Lee and Jefferson
Davis that he lead a great invasion of the North,
defeating Grant and Butler, and win the war.
Undoubtedly to remove him as an irritant to Lee in
Virginia, Beauregard was appointed commander of
Confederate forces in the West. Since all of his
forces were engaged elsewhere (in Tennessee,
Alabama, and Mississippi), he had insufficient
resources to halt the superior Union forces under
William Tecumseh Sherman|William T. Sherman in
their Sherman's March to the Sea|march to the sea.
He and Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman
in North Carolina in April 1865.

==Postbellum life==
After the war Beauregard spoke in favor of civil
and voting rights for the recently freed slavery |
slaves, an opinion not common among high-ranking
Confederates. 

Beauregard's military writings include Principles
and Maxims of the Art of War (1863), Report on the
Defense of Charleston, and A Commentary on the
Campaign and Battle of Manassas (1891). He was the
uncredited co-author of The Military Operations of
General Beauregard in the War Between the States
(1884). Beauregard and Jefferson Davis published a
series of bitter accusations and
counter-accusations, blaming each other in
retrospect for the defeat of the Confederacy.

General Beauregard declined offers to take command
of the armies of Romania (1866) and Egypt (1869). 

Beauregard became involved in promotion of
railroad|railroads, both as a company director and
a consulting engineer. He was the president of the
New Orleans, Jackson & Mississippi Railroad from
1865 to 1870, and president of the New Orleans and
Carrollton Street Railway, 1866 to 1876, for which
he invented a system of cable-powered street
railway cars.    

Beauregard served in the government of the State
of Louisiana, first as adjutant general for the
state militia, and then less successfully as
manager of the Louisiana Lottery. Though
considered personally honest, he failed to reform
corruption in the Lottery system. 

P.G.T. Beauregard died in New Orleans. He is
buried there in Metairie Cemetery.

==References==
*Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War
High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001,
ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.