P. G. T. Beauregard

Beauregard's penchant for organizing intricate battle plans – which were often unrealistic or impractical – as well as his ongoing feud with Confederate President Jefferson Davis – pushed him out of the spotlight as Davis repeatedly relieved him of command and sent him to the Western theater of the war. He commanded at the Battle of Shiloh (6-7 April 1862) and famously held off Union troops during the Siege of Petersburg (9 June 1864 to 25 March 1865), considered his greatest command of the war.

Owing to his feud with Davis, however, as well as his friction with fellow officers, Beauregard is not as well-known today as other Confederate generals who fought in the Eastern theater of the war or those who retained commands, essentially because they were friends with Davis, such as Braxton Bragg.

Further, after the conflict, he was one of the few Confederate generals – like James Longstreet and William Mahone – who advocated for civil rights in the South, Black suffrage, and desegregation, making him unpopular with those who held to the "Lost Cause" myth and sought to return the South to its antebellum state through Jim Crow policies.

Early Life & West Point

Beauregard was born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on 28 May 1818, the son of Jacques Toutant-Beauregard and Helene Judith de Reggio. He was the third child of the Louisiana Creole family and had three brothers and three sisters. His extended family included many Creoles of color and, as a child, he frequently played with his dark-complexioned cousins and with slave boys.

He grew up on the Contreras sugar cane plantation where he had been born, nursed by a slave woman named Mamie Francoise Similien, who regarded him as one of her sons. His family was Catholic and, like most Creoles, spoke French. As his parents were well-off, he was sent to private schools as a youth and then to New York City to attend "French school" for four years to learn English. Some of the headmasters at this school had been officers under Napoleon Bonaparte, and their stories inspired Beauregard to choose a career in the military.

He entered West Point Military Academy in 1834 and graduated second in his class in 1838, having specialized as a military engineer and artilleryman. He studied Napoleon's campaigns throughout his years at West Point and adopted a singular French fashion of dress so that his classmates called him "Little Napoleon." His admiration for Bonaparte would later influence many of his intricate battle plans during the Civil War. His darker complexion also earned him the nickname of "Little Creole" and "Little Black Frenchman."

Beauregard is said to have been a student of, then assistant to, Robert Anderson, the future commander of Fort Sumter, whom Beauregard would fire upon in 1861. This claim is challenged by scholar Sean Michael Chick, who writes:

After graduation, Beauregard supposedly served as an assistant to his favorite teacher, Robert Anderson, the artillery instructor. However, Anderson had already left West Point, making the story likely apocryphal.
(8)

Anderson was serving as a first lieutenant in the Second Seminole War in 1837 but appears to have returned to West Point by 1839. Scholar T. Harry Williams notes:

[Beauregard's] favorite teacher was artillery instructor Robert Anderson, who would refuse to surrender Fort Sumter to his former pupil in the opening scene of the war. The relations between the two apparently were close, for right after graduating, Beauregard served for a time as Anderson's assistant.
(8)

Williams's claim is the one generally accepted by historians and is supported by Beauregard's letters.

Beauregard married Marie Antoinette Laure Villere, the daughter of a Louisiana planter, in 1841, and the couple had three children. Marie died giving birth to the third child, Laure, in 1850. Between circa 1842 and 1847, Beauregard and his family lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where he worked as a military engineer.

Mexican-American War & Life Between Wars

In 1847, Beauregard was sent to Mexico to serve as an engineer in the Mexican-American War under General Winfield Scott, seeing action in several battles, including Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. He was breveted to captain and then major and, at Chapultepec, raised concerns about Scott's plan for a frontal assault on the Candelaria Gate of the city, suggesting instead a feint at the gate and an attack on the fortress. Scott agreed with him, and his plan resulted in victory.

During the Battle of Chapultepec, Beauregard was wounded in the shoulder and leg but continued with the campaign and was among the first officers to enter Mexico City, ending the war.

In 1848, he returned to Louisiana and worked on repairing forts, notably Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip on the Mississippi River. He was an ardent Southern Democrat who supported the campaign of Franklin Pierce for president in 1852 and was rewarded with the position of superintending engineer at the US Custom House in New Orleans, which he held between 1853 and 1860.

He was appointed superintendent of West Point in January 1861, but he held that position for only a few days because his home state, Louisiana, seceded from the Union on 26 January 1861, and the US government revoked his orders. Beauregard considered this an unfair and unjust action, as he believed Louisiana had a right to secede and had not posed a threat to the US government in any way. If hostilities were to break out, however, he understood he would have to fight for his home state, a decision many Confederate officers made.

The Civil War

He returned to Louisiana, hoping for an appointment as commander of the state's army, but this honor went to Braxton Bragg. Beauregard was appointed Brigadier General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on 1 March 1861 and ordered to take charge of the defenses at Charleston, South Carolina, arriving on 3 March 1861.

Battle of Fort Sumter

Major Robert Anderson, commanding the Union forces in the Charleston Harbor, had moved his men from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter on the night of 26 December 1860 shortly after South Carolina had seceded on 20 December. The authorities in Charleston considered this a hostile act, as Sumter was more easily defensible than Moultrie and posed a direct threat to the city of Charleston.

Upon Beauregard's arrival in the city, he sent Anderson cases of brandy, whiskey, and cigars – but Anderson ordered these be returned as he did not feel the gifts were appropriate under the circumstances.

On 6 April, however, he wrote to Beauregard:

I most earnestly hope that nothing will occur to alter, in the least, the high regard and esteem I have, for so many years, entertained for you. I am, Dear General, yours…

Beauregard replied:

Let me assure you, Major, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to preserve the friendly relations and impressions which have existed between us for so many years.
(Chadwick, 268)

Even so, Charleston could not have a Union garrison fortifying a position so close to the city, and Beauregard demanded Anderson surrender Sumter. Anderson refused, and, at 4:30 a.m. on 12 April 1861, Beauregard ordered his command to fire on the fort, starting the Civil War.

Anderson's command withstood the bombardment, returning fire, until 13 April when he surrendered. Beauregard, true to his word, took no prisoners and allowed Anderson and the garrison to return to New York City. Anderson, in the North, and Beauregard, in the South, became national heroes.

Battle of First Bull Run (First Manassas)

Beauregard was given command of the troops at the Battle of First Bull Run (First Manassas) on 21 July along with General Joseph E. Johnston. They faced Union forces under Brigadier General Irvin McDowell (among Beauregard's classmates at West Point), and, at first, the day did not go well for them. The battle turned in favor of the Confederates in the afternoon with the capture of Union guns and the famous charge made by Stonewall Jackson, which sent the Union Army into retreat (recorded by journalist William H. Russel in his Panic at Bull Run).

The battle was a stunning defeat for the North and a great victory for the South, but Beauregard and Johnston failed to pursue the Union Army to Washington, D.C., which, according to Beauregard's staff officer and later artilleryman, E. P. Alexander, was an unforgivable mistake, as he makes clear in his critique of the battle, Losing an Opportunity at Bull Run.

Beauregard's failure to pursue began the friction between himself and Jefferson Davis, but there is considerable difference of opinion between supporters of each, even today, as to who was to blame. Beauregard claimed he would have pursued but was stopped by Davis; Davis claimed he strongly suggested pursuit but was deterred by Beauregard and Johnston. Actually, the Confederate Army was too disorganized at Bull Run to have effectively pursued the enemy that night, and a heavy rain the next day prevented any further action. Beauregard was promoted to full general in the Confederate Army following his victory.

Among the many problems both armies faced on 21 July was confusion caused by similar uniforms and flags. Beauregard addressed this issue by designing the Confederate Battle Flag, the most famous banner of the Confederacy.

Shiloh & Charleston

Beauregard, who had initially been highly regarded by Davis, quickly became an irritant as he publicly criticized the president for his decisions at Bull Run and refused to accept orders from Davis's cabinet members. Davis came to see Beauregard as arrogant and pretentious and so sent him to the Western theater in March 1862, essentially to get him out of the way.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant had been active in the West since 1861 and had won the Battle of Fort Henry on 6 February 1862 and the Battle of Fort Donelson (11-16 February 1862). In March, Grant was moving toward Corinth, Mississippi, to join with the army under Major General Don Carlos Buell.

Beauregard was second-in-command to General Albert Sidney Johnston, and together they moved their Army of Mississippi to intercept Grant. Beauregard planned an intricate assault, along Napoleonic lines, which resulted in disorganization on the field. Still, he was able to drive Grant back, and when Johnston was mortally wounded, Beauregard assumed full command at the Battle of Shiloh (6-7 April 1862).

As darkness fell on the 6th, Beauregard called off the attack, confident that Grant had been beaten, and planned to destroy the Union forces the next morning. During the afternoon of the 6th, however, Buell's forces had arrived, and, on the morning of the 7th, Grant launched a counterattack that drove Beauregard from the field and forced his retreat to Corinth. Grant was replaced by Major General Henry W. Halleck, a far more timid commander, who approached Corinth slowly, giving Beauregard time to mount a defense that included running empty trains which were met by loud cheers from his troops, suggesting the arrival of reinforcements. Halleck waited so long to move on Corinth that, by the time he did, Beauregard had slipped out and taken his troops to Tupelo, Mississippi.

At this point, worn out, Beauregard took medical leave – but without sending a formal request to Davis – and so Davis replaced him with Beauregard's old rival, General Braxton Bragg. Beauregard protested, but Davis would not listen and sent Beauregard back to Charleston to oversee defenses. Throughout 1863, Beauregard held Charleston against Union attacks, especially on Fort Sumter, which had been under Confederate control since April 1861.

It was under Beauregard's watch that the famous Second Battle of Fort Wagner (18 July 1863) on Morris Island took place, during which the Black regiment of the 54th Massachusetts under Robert Gould Shaw led the Union attack, famously dramatized in the 1989 movie Glory.

Beauregard oversaw experimentation with submarines during this time in an effort to break the Union blockade of Charleston Harbor. He became involved in the development of the submarine H.L. Hunley and ordered the spar attached to the bow that would deliver the explosive charge. The Hunley successfully attacked and sank the USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864 but then sank immediately afterwards.

Petersburg & Surender

In 1860, ten years after losing his first wife, Beauregard had married for a second time to Marguerite Caroline Deslonde. While inspecting fortifications in Florida, he received a telegram informing him that Caroline had died on 2 March 1864 after a long illness. Beauregard could not leave his post, and the Northern press published editorials claiming that his neglect had led to his wife's death, leading to a shift in popular opinion against him. Union forces oversaw the return of her remains from New Orleans to her home.

Beauregard requested leave to recover from his wife's death and a serious throat problem he was experiencing, but this was denied, and he was ordered to North Carolina to prepare a defense for Virginia. It was during this time that he took command of the troops at Petersburg, Virginia, in June 1864, holding the city against Ulysses S. Grant until March 1865, considered his finest action of the entire war.

The Confederacy was falling as Grant continued to pursue Robert E. Lee and William Tecumseh Sherman swept through the South on his March to the Sea. Beauregard's health was also failing, and he was replaced by Joseph E. Johnston. After Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, Beauregard and Johnston surrendered to Sherman in Durham, North Carolina on 26 April, and the war was effectively over.

Post-War Life

After the war, Beauregard returned to New Orleans, took the oath of loyalty to the United States in September 1865, and was officially pardoned for his part in the War of the Rebellion by President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He received offers from foreign countries to lead their armies but settled on a quiet life as a civilian.

In 1869, he received a patent for the cable car, which he introduced to New Orleans and served as chief engineer and superintendent of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Railroad. He also served as superintendent for the Louisiana State Lottery Company and, like many other Civil War officers, contributed articles on the conflict to various periodicals.

During this time, he also openly advocated for civil rights and Black suffrage, leading the Louisiana Unification Movement in 1873. Beauregard called for the integration of schools, equal education and property ownership, and the desegregation of public places and public transportation. Scholars still debate whether he did so because of his belief in the equality of the races, fostered in him when he was a child, or whether this was a political maneuver to use Black suffrage as a means of defeating Radical Republican policies and manipulating the Black population of the South to serve White interests.

Conclusion

Whatever his motivations may have been, the outcome, had it been accepted, would have established civil rights for Blacks in the South roughly 80 years before the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. His initiatives were rejected, however, and other, racially charged, policies were implemented, as would also happen with the great work of William Mahone in Virginia.

It is ironic, therefore, that P. G. T. Beauregard's equestrian statue, once located at the entrance of City Park in New Orleans, was removed in May 2017 as part of the city's initiative to take down the monuments to Confederate leaders. Although his advocacy for civil rights in the South cannot really be compared with those of Longstreet or Mahone, he did seem to have a change of heart and tried to right past wrongs.

Beauregard died in his sleep on 20 February 1893, aged 74, of heart disease, and was interred in the Metairie Cemetery in the Metairie suburb of New Orleans. His advocacy for civil rights made him unpopular in the South – and so his stand at Petersburg and victory at Bull Run faded in the collective memory.

Today, Beauregard is usually lumped together with other Southern Civil War generals under the heading of "Confederate" and dismissed – or has been simply forgotten as he did not receive the same glowing press as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, or J. E. B. Stuart after the war – but he remains one of the most interesting and enigmatic figures of the American Civil War, and his story deserves greater attention.