Early Years
Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard was born on May 28, 1818, at Contreras, his family's sugarcane plantation outside of New Orleans in the French Creole stronghold of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. He was the third of seven children born to Jacques Toutant-Beauregard and Helene Judith de Reggio Toutant-Beauregard.
Raised in a French-speaking aristocracy that prized European manners and held American culture in contempt, Beauregard was educated in a New Orleans boarding school before enrolling, at age eleven, in the Frères Peugnet School in New York City. The school's founders, brothers Louis and Hyacinthe Peugnet, had served as officers under Napoléon Bonaparte and helped to inspire Beauregard's lifelong interest in the statesman-general. Against his family's wishes—they worried he was overassimilating into American culture—Beauregard sought appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, enrolling in March 1834 as Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. (His hyphenless last name suggested further Americanizing.) In 1838, he finished second of forty-five in a class that included future Confederate general Edward "Allegheny" Johnson and future Union general Irvin McDowell.
During the Mexican War, he served as one of nine engineering staff officers, including George B. McClellan and Robert E. Lee, under Winfield Scott. After earning the brevet, or honorary rank, of captain, he participated in the La Piedad council of war in September 1847 that helped to plan the Battle of Chapultepec. He earned the rank of brevet major after the victory, despite feeling that Scott did not sufficiently credit him for his performance. After the war, Beauregard took charge of the Mississippi and Lake Defenses of Louisiana in 1848 and held that position until 1860. In 1858, he ran unsuccessfully as a states'-rights Democratic candidate for mayor of New Orleans.
Marie Laure had died in 1850 while giving birth to their third child, Laure Villeré, and in 1860 Beauregard married Caroline Deslonde, a Creole aristocrat and sister-in-law of U.S. senator John Slidell. They had no children, and Deslonde died in New Orleans in 1864.
Fort Sumter to First Manassas
Beauregard arrived in Charleston on March 6, 1861, and his haughty, reserved demeanor was well received by Charleston society. He surrounded himself with high-ranking aides and volunteers, while a Spanish valet attended his person. Although Beauregard arrived with jet-black hair, within a year it had turned white. His friends attributed the change to worry, but others blamed the U.S. blockade, which prevented the importation of hair dye.
All points around Charleston Harbor were held by the Confederates except for Fort Sumter. Beauregard's mission was to prevent relief to the fort from U.S. ships, and if necessary, to batter it into submission. U.S. general-in-chief Winfield Scott had given Beauregard's old friend, Major Robert Anderson, command of Sumter in part because he was a Kentucky-born slave owner whose background might ameliorate the situation. On April 11, 1861, Beauregard issued a series of surrender terms to Anderson, whose last reply—that he would evacuate the garrison by April 15 and would not fire on the Confederates unless he were resupplied or otherwise instructed—was taken as a refusal. The first shot on the fort was ordered at four thirty on the morning of April 12. After 35 hours of bombardment, Anderson surrendered on the evening of April 13 and Beauregard was instantly declared a hero of the Confederacy.
Summoned to Richmond on May 30, 1861, Beauregard arrived to a large fanfare. Until this time he and the new Confederate president and former U.S. secretary of war Jefferson Davis had enjoyed a distant yet courteous relationship. Under the strain of a new war, however, they clashed. Davis was a renowned micromanager who hated to be contradicted. Beauregard fashioned himself Napoléon reborn, overlooking orders from above while designing grand strategies that defied the reality of Confederate resources.
At the end of August both Beauregard and Johnston were promoted to full general, but Johnston took command of the now-combined armies. The two men had a good relationship but Beauregard again felt slighted. By the fall, Beauregard was engaged in verbal disputes with both Confederate cabinet member Judah P. Benjamin and President Davis. Partly as a result, he was sent west in January 1862 to serve in the Army of the Mississippi as second in command under Albert Sidney Johnston.
In the West
On May 29, Beauregard skillfully evacuated the army to Tupelo, but his failure to defend Corinth enraged Jefferson Davis. On June 14, Beauregard obtained a certificate of disability for a recurring throat problem. And then, without Davis's approval, and leaving his army under the command of Braxton Bragg, he repaired to Alabama for the summer to recuperate. Davis gave the army to Bragg and, under political pressure from Beauregard's allies not to cashier him from the army altogether, transferred Beauregard to the Department of South Carolina and Georgia. Arriving on September 15, 1862, he helped build up the harbor's defenses and drove off Union attacks, including the famous storming of Fort Wagner by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry on July 18, 1863.
Petersburg to Surrender
By June 12, Grant and the Army of the Potomac, having battled Lee at the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania Court House, along the North Anna River, and at Cold Harbor, crossed the James and sent troops to Butler for a June 15 attack on Petersburg. The city held, however, as Beauregard staged one of the most remarkable defenses of the war. He virtually abandoned his outer lines and so heavily manned the city that Grant was forced to settle in for a long siege. Both sides dug in, but it was the rail lines—critical to Lee for supplying and quickly moving his troops—that mattered. On August 18, at the Battle of Weldon Railroad, Union troops cut the critical line. Beauregard's counterattack captured 2,700 Union soldiers, but he was unable to restore the important artery.
Later Years
After the war, Beauregard served as president of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company, as well as of the Jackson Rail Line. He was offered the command of several foreign armies, including the armies of Romania and Egypt, but was unable to negotiate the terms to his satisfaction. In 1872 he helped found the Reform Party in Louisiana, a coalition of moderate Democrats who supported civil rights, including suffrage, for African Americans. In 1873 he helped form the Unification Party, which sought to lower taxes with the support of the black vote. The party's advisory committee included an equal number of white and black members, the white contingent consisting of influential businessmen and lawyers, the black contingent of Creole men who had been free before the war. Their platform included an end to employment discrimination and segregation, but the party lacked popular support and collapsed. Beauregard served as commissioner of the New Orleans Lottery (1877–1893) and in 1879 was appointed Louisiana's adjutant general. In 1888 he was elected New Orleans's commissioner of public works.
Beauregard remained popular in New Orleans, and was unusually wealthy among former Confederate generals, a fact which sometimes uncomfortably set him apart. He died on February 20, 1893, after a series of illnesses, and was given a state funeral. He was buried in the tomb of the Army of Tennessee at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.
Time Line
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May 28, 1818 - Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard is born at Contreras plantation, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
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March 1834 - Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard is admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He Americanizes his last name by removing the hyphen.
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July 1, 1838 - Pierre G. T. Beauregard graduates from West Point ranked second in a class of forty-five, and is commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His first assignment is to serve as an assistant to his artillery instructor, Robert Anderson.
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October 1839 - Pierre G. T. Beauregard is posted to Pensacola, Florida, and then to Barataria Bay on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
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September 1841 - Pierre G. T. Beauregard marries Marie Laure Villeré of Magnolia plantation, sister of Charles Villeré, later a Confederate congressman. They have two sons, René and Henri.
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August 1844 - Pierre G. T. Beauregard is posted to Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, as an engineering officer. His flamboyant personality makes a big splash in Baltimore society, and he establishes a reputation as a dashing, elegant, and popular officer. In a further attempt at assimilation, he drops the name "Pierre" and signs himself "G. T. Beauregard."
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February 1845 - G. T. Beauregard is posted to Louisiana. He patents a furnace to boil sugar. He is also arrested for dueling.
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November 1846 - At the start of the Mexican War, G. T. Beauregard is ordered to Tampico, Mexico, to assume charge of building supply-line fortifications.
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August 1847 - G. T. Beauregard is awarded a field brevet of captain for action at Pedregal, Contreras, and Churubusco during the Mexican War.
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September 12, 1847 - G. T. Beauregard distinguishes himself during the successful storming of Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City during the Mexican War. He will be awarded the field brevet of major.
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1848–1860 - G. T. Beauregard returns to Louisiana and is placed in charge of the Mississippi and Lake Defenses of Louisiana.
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1850 - G. T. Beauregard's wife Marie Laure dies giving birth to their daughter, Laure Villeré Beauregard.
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1852 - G. T. Beauregard accepts an appointment as superintending engineer of the New Orleans Custom House. He is promoted to captain.
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1858 - G. T. Beauregard runs for mayor of New Orleans as a states'-rights Democrat but fails to win election.
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1860 - G. T. Beauregard marries Caroline Deslonde, sister-in-law of U.S. senator John Slidell.
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January 23, 1861 - G. T. Beauregard is appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
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January 28, 1861 - Two days after his native Louisiana secedes from the Union, G. T. Beauregard is forced to resign as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He had held the position just five days.
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February 1861 - G. T. Beauregard is summoned to Montgomery, Alabama, to meet with Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who appoints him a brigadier general and assigns him command of Charleston, South Carolina.
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February 20, 1861 - G. T. Beauregard returns to New Orleans, and resigns his U.S. Army commission. He enlists as a private in the Orleans Guards.
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April 12, 1861 - G. T. Beauregard orders the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, after his former West Point instructor Robert Anderson refuses to meet the conditions for a Union surrender. The Union garrison is evacuated the next day.
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May 28, 1861 - Overriding a previous order sending him to Corinth, Mississippi, G. T. Beauregard is ordered to Richmond.
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June 2, 1861 - G. T. Beauregard arrives near Manassas Junction, as commander of the Alexandria Line. He urges citizens there to fight against the "Yankee war cry of Beauty and Booty," and encourages them to expel abolitionists from Virginia.
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July 21, 1861 - At the First Battle of Manassas, G. T. Beauregard acts as second in command to Joseph E. Johnston as they rout Union forces under Irvin McDowell.
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August 31, 1861 - G. T. Beauregard is promoted to the rank of full general.
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January 1862 - After months of public dispute with Confederate cabinet member Judah P. Benjamin over strategy after the Union rout at the First Battle of Manassas, G. T. Beauregard is ordered to the Western Theater to act as second in command to Albert Sidney Johnston.
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April 6, 1862 - G. T. Beauregard assumes command of the Army of the Mississippi after Albert Sidney Johnston is killed at the Battle of Shiloh.
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June 9, 1862 - G. T. Beauregard and his Confederate Army of the Mississippi withdraw from Corinth, Mississippi, and arrive in Tupelo, a move that infuriates Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
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June 14, 1862 - G. T. Beauregard obtains a certificate of disability for a recurring throat problem and, without approval, leaves command of the Army of the Mississippi to Braxton Bragg and repairs to Alabama for the summer to recuperate.
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August 29, 1862 - G. T. Beauregard is relieved of command of the Army of the Mississippi and ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, to command the Department of South Carolina and Georgia.
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September 15, 1862 - G. T. Beauregard arrives in Charleston, South Carolina, and takes command of the city's defense.
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1863 - G. T. Beauregard commands the defense of Charleston, South Carolina, against Union ironclad attacks, but after heavy bombardment late in the summer orders the evacuation of Battery Wagner and Morris Island.
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March 2, 1864 - G. T. Beauregard's wife Caroline Deslonde dies in Union-occupied New Orleans, Louisiana.
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April 18, 1864 - G. T. Beauregard takes command of the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.
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June 15–18, 1864 - In the opening battle for the city of Petersburg, G. T. Beauregard's greatly outnumbered Confederates hold off a Union attack, allowing Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia time to concentrate south of Richmond.
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October 2, 1864 - G. T. Beauregard is given the command of the Department of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
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April 26, 1865 - Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to William T. Sherman, receiving the same terms afforded Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.
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June 1865 - At the end of the Civil War, G. T. Beauregard returns to his native New Orleans, Louisiana, and helps restore the Jackson Rail Line.
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April 1866 - G. T. Beauregard reorganizes and is made president of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company.
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1877–1893 - G. T. Beauregard serves as commissioner of the New Orleans Lottery.
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1879 - G. T. Beauregard is appointed Louisiana's adjutant general.
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1884 - G. T. Beauregard's memoirs, The Military Operations of General Beauregard, are published in two volumes under the name of ghostwriter Alfred Roman. Beauregard is said to have written the majority of the work.
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1888 - G. T. Beauregard is elected commissioner of public works in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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February 20, 1893 - G. T. Beauregard suddenly dies in New Orleans, Louisiana, after a series of illnesses from which he had been expected to recover.
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First published: June 17, 2010 | Last modified: July 19, 2014