page_title: P. G. T. Beauregard
section_title: Charleston
hierarchical_section_title: P. G. T. Beauregard / American Civil War / Charleston
caption_attribution_description: English: Bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, Engraved in 1863 expressly for Abbotts Civil War; print: b&amp;w; 14 x 20 cm. (5 1/2 x 8 in.), The NYPL, #id=813059.
context_page_description: Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard was a Confederate general officer who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult. He signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.
  Trained in military and civil engineering at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, Beauregard served with distinction as an engineer officer in the Mexican–American War. Following a brief appointment as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy in 1861, and after Louisiana seceded, he resigned from the United States Army and became the first brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He commanded the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Three months later he won the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.
  Beauregard commanded armies in the Western Theater, including at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, and the Siege of Corinth in northern Mississippi. He returned to Charleston and defended it in 1863 from repeated naval and land attacks by Union forces.
context_section_description: Beauregard traveled by steamship from New York to New Orleans and immediately began giving military advice to the local authorities, which included further strengthening Forts St. Philip and Jackson, which guarded the Mississippi approaches to New Orleans. He hoped to be named commander of the state army, but was disappointed that the state legislature appointed Braxton Bragg. Aware that Beauregard might resent him, Bragg offered him the rank of colonel. Instead Beauregard enrolled as a private in the "Orleans Guards", a battalion of French Creole aristocrats. At the same time, he communicated with Slidell and the newly chosen President Davis, angling for a senior position in the new Confederate States Army. Rumors that Beauregard would be placed in charge of the entire Army infuriated Bragg. Concerned about the political situation regarding the Federal presence at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Davis selected Beauregard to take command of Charleston's defenses. Beauregard seemed the perfect combination of military engineer and charismatic Southern leader needed at that time and place.
  Beauregard became one of the most frequently described generals in Confederate chronicles, and almost every observer noted his foreign French visage. His comportment was "courteous, grave, sometimes reserved and severe, sometimes abrupt with people who displeased him." Associates would see him go months without smiling. "Many who saw him thought he looked like a French marshal or like Napoleon in a gray uniform- which was what he wanted them to think.
  "Because he was French and seemed different, he was the victim of all kind of rumors, most of them baseless. The charge of immorality was, of course, inevitable. Some soldiers believed that he was accompanied by a train of concubines and wagons loaded with cases of champagne. Even in Louisiana it was said, by non-Creoles, that he was unfaithful to his wife, infidelity being allegedly a Creole characteristic."
  Beauregard's "military retinue was a wonderful collection in itself to inspire rumor. His staff glittered with former governors and senators serving as voluntary aides." "A prominent member of" Beauregard's "entourage was Frederick Marinnis", a slave whom Beauregard hired from a South Carolinian woman whom he personally described as being a very intelligent fellow. Marinnis would comport himself with an air of importance and would talk liberally about General Beauregard's future plans and was his confidant. "Another eminent camp follower was a young Spaniard who served as Beauregard's barber and valet."
  Beauregard became the first Confederate general officer, appointed a brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on March 1, 1861. (On July 21, he was promoted to full general in the Confederate Army, one of only seven appointed to that rank; his date of rank made him the fifth most senior general, behind Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston.)
  Arriving in Charleston on March 3, 1861, Beauregard met with Governor Francis Wilkinson Pickens and inspected the defenses of the harbor, which he found to be in disarray. He was said to display "a great deal in the way of zeal and energy ... but little professional knowledge and experience." Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter wrote to Washington, D.C., that Beauregard, who had been his student at West Point in 1837, would guarantee that South Carolina's actions be exercised with "skill and sound judgment." Beauregard wrote to the first Confederate capital of Montgomery, Alabama, that Anderson was a "most gallant officer". He sent several cases of fine brandy and whiskey and boxes of cigars to Anderson and his officers at Sumter, but Anderson ordered that the gifts be returned.
  By early April, political tensions were mounting and Beauregard demanded that Sumter surrender before a planned Union expedition to re-provision the fort could arrive. Early on the morning of April 12, negotiations with Anderson had failed and aides of Beauregard, sent to deal personally with Anderson, order
caption: Bombardment of Fort Sumter, 1861.
  George Edward Perine (1837–1885), engraver.
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