P . G . T . Beauregard Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard ( ; May 28 , 1818 – February 20 , 1893 ) was a Louisiana - born American military officer , politician , inventor , writer , civil servant , and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . 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 as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy , Beauregard served with distinction as an engineer in the Mexican - American War . Following a brief appointment at West Point in 1861 , after the South seceded he resigned from the US Army and became the first Confederate brigadier general . 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 . His greatest achievement was saving the important industrial city of Petersburg , Virginia in June 1864 , and thus the nearby Confederate capital of Richmond , from assaults by overwhelmingly superior Union Army forces . But , his influence over Confederate strategy was lessened by his poor professional relationships with President Jefferson Davis and other senior generals and officials . In April 1865 , Beauregard and his commander , General Joseph E . Johnston , convinced Davis and the remaining cabinet members that the war needed to end . Johnston surrendered most of the remaining armies of the Confederacy , including Beauregard and his men , to Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman . Following his military career , Beauregard returned to Louisiana , where he served as a railroad executive . He became wealthy because of his role in promoting the Louisiana Lottery . Early life and education . Beauregard was born at the " Contreras " sugar - cane plantation in St . Bernard Parish , Louisiana , about outside New Orleans , to a French Creole family . Beauregard was the third child of Hélène Judith de Reggio , a descendant of an Italian noble family who had migrated to France and then to Louisiana , and her husband , Jacques Toutant - Beauregard , of French and Welsh ancestry . François Marie , Chevalier de Reggio , his mother ' s grandfather , was a member of the House of Este and was an officer in the War of the Austrian Succession , and an influential official in the government of Spanish Louisiana . He had three brothers and three sisters . Beauregard attended New Orleans private schools and then went to a " French school " in New York City . During his four years in New York , beginning at age 12 , he first learned to speak English , as French had been his first language in Louisiana . He was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . One of his instructors was Robert Anderson , who later became the commander of Fort Sumter and surrendered to Beauregard at the start of the Civil War . Upon enrolling at West Point , Beauregard dropped the hyphen from his surname and treated Toutant as a middle name , to fit in with his classmates . From that point on , he rarely used his first name , preferring " G . T . Beauregard . " He graduated second in his class in 1838 and excelled both as an artillery man and military engineer . His Army friends gave him many nicknames : " Little Creole " , " Bory " , " Little Frenchman " , " Felix " , and " Little Napoleon " . Career in U . S . Army . During the Mexican - American War , Beauregard served as an engineer under General Winfield Scott . He was appointed brevet captain for the battles of Contreras and Churubusco and major for Chapultepec , where he was wounded in the shoulder and thigh . He was noted for his eloquent performance in a meeting with Scott in which he swayed the opinions of the general officers assembled to change their planned tactics for attacking the fortress of Chapultepec . He was one of the first officers to enter Mexico City . Beauregard considered his contributions in dangerous reconnaissance missions and devising strategy for his superiors to be more significant than those of his engineer colleague , Captain Robert E . Lee , so he was disappointed when Lee and other officers received more brevets than he did . Beauregard returned from Mexico in 1848 . For the next 12 years , he was in charge of what the Engineer Department called " the Mississippi and Lake defenses in Louisiana . " Much of his engineering work was done elsewhere , repairing old forts and building new ones on the Florida coast and in Mobile , Alabama . He also improved the defenses of Forts St . Philip and Jackson on the Mississippi River below New Orleans . He worked on a board of Army and Navy engineers to improve the navigation of the shipping channels at the mouth of the Mississippi . He created and patented an invention he called a " self - acting bar excavator " to be used by ships in crossing bars of sand and clay . While still in the Army , he actively campaigned for the election of Franklin Pierce , the Democratic presidential candidate in 1852 , and a former general in the Mexican War who had been impressed by Beauregard ' s performance at Mexico City . Pierce appointed Beauregard as superintending engineer of the New Orleans Federal customs house , a huge granite building that had been built in 1848 . As it was sinking unevenly in the moist soil of Louisiana , Beauregard had to develop a renovation program . He served in this position from 1853 to 1860 and was able to stabilize the structure successfully . During his service in New Orleans , Beauregard became dissatisfied as a peacetime officer . He informed the U . S . Army Engineer Department late in 1856 that he was going to join the filibuster with William Walker , who had seized control of Nicaragua ; he had offered Beauregard the rank of second - in - command of his army . Senior officers , including general - in - chief Winfield Scott , convinced Beauregard to stay in the US . He briefly entered politics as a reform candidate for mayor of New Orleans in 1858 , where he was promoted by both the Whig and Democratic parties to challenge the Know Nothing party candidate . Beauregard was narrowly defeated . Employing the political influence of his brother - in - law , John Slidell , Beauregard obtained an appointment as superintendent of the U . S . Military Academy on January 23 , 1861 . His orders were revoked and he relinquished the office after only five days when Louisiana seceded from the Union . He protested to the War Department that they had cast " improper reflection upon [ his ] reputation or position in the Corps of Engineers " by forcing him out as a Southern officer before any hostilities began . Family . In 1841 , Beauregard married Marie Antoinette Laure Villeré ( March 22 , 1823 – March 21 , 1850 ) , the daughter of Jules Villeré , a sugar cane planter in Plaquemines Parish and a member of one of the most prominent French Creole families in southern Louisiana . Marie ' s paternal grandfather was Jacques Villeré , the second governor of Louisiana . She was described as having blue eyes and fair skin . The couple had three children : René ( 1843 – 1910 ) , Henri ( 1845 – 1915 ) , and Laure ( 1850 – 1884 ) . Marie died in March 1850 , while giving birth to Laure . Ten years later , the widower Beauregard married Caroline Deslonde , the daughter of André Deslonde , a sugar cane planter from St . James Parish . Caroline was a sister - in - law of John Slidell , a U . S . senator from Louisiana and later a Confederate diplomat . She died in New Orleans in March 1864 , when it was under Union occupation . They had no children together . Civil War . Charleston . 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 the officer 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 the first Confederate general officer , appointed a brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on March 1 , 1861 . ( He was promoted on July 21 to be one of the eventual seven full generals in the Confederate Army ; 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 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 " . Beauregard did not relish firing on his old friend and former instructor . 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 . Political tensions mounted by early April and Beauregard demanded that Sumter surrender before a planned Union expedition to re - provision the fort could arrive . Early in the morning of April 12 , negotiations with Anderson had failed and aides of Beauregard , sent to deal personally with Anderson , ordered the first shots of the American Civil War to be fired from nearby Fort Johnson . The bombardment of Fort Sumter lasted for 34 hours . Subjected to thousands of rounds fired from batteries ringing the harbor , Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter on April 14 . Biographer T . Harry Williams described the extravagant praise from throughout the Confederacy that " The Hero of Fort Sumter " received for his victory : " He was the South ' s first paladin . " First Bull Run ( First Manassas ) . Summoned to the new Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia , Beauregard received a hero ' s welcome at the railroad stations along the route . He was given command of the " Alexandria Line " of defenses against an impending Federal offensive that was being organized by Brig . Gen . Irvin McDowell ( one of Beauregard ' s West Point classmates ) against the Confederate railroad junction at Manassas . Beauregard devised strategies to concentrate the forces of ( full ) General Joseph E . Johnston from the Shenandoah Valley with his own , aiming not only to defend his position , but to initiate an offensive against McDowell and Washington . Despite his seniority in rank , Johnston lacked familiarity with the terrain and ceded tactical planning of the impending battle to Beauregard as a professional courtesy . President Davis considered many of Beauregard ' s plans to be impractical for an army as inexperienced as the Confederates could field in 1861 ; throughout the war , Davis and Beauregard would argue about Beauregard ' s tendencies to devise grand strategies based on formal military principles . Davis believed he lacked a pragmatic grasp of logistics , intelligence , relative military strengths , and politics . The First Battle of Bull Run ( First Manassas ) began early on July 21 , 1861 , with an element of surprise for both armies — both McDowell and Beauregard planned to envelop their opponent with an attack from their right flank . McDowell struck first , crossing Bull Run and threatening Beauregard ' s left flank . For a while , Beauregard persisted in moving his troops for an attack on his right flank ( McDowell ' s left , toward Centreville ) , but Johnston urged him to travel with him to the threatened flank at Henry House Hill , which was weakly defended . Seeing the strength of the Union attack at that point , Beauregard insisted that Johnston leave the area of immediate action and coordinate the overall battle from a position to the rear . Beauregard rallied the troops , riding among the men , brandishing regimental colors , and giving inspirational speeches . The Confederate line held . As Johnston ' s final troops arrived from the Shenandoah Valley , the Confederates launched a counterattack that routed the Union Army , sending it streaming in disorder back toward Washington . William C . Davis credits Johnston with the majority of the tactical decisions that led to the victory , judging that " Beauregard acted chiefly as a dime novel general , leading the charge of an individual regiment , riding along the line to cheer the troops , accepting the huzzas of the soldiers and complementing them in turn . The closest he came to a major tactical decision was his fleeting intention to withdraw from the Henry Hill line when he briefly mistook [ the advance of Johnston ' s reinforcements for the arrival of fresh Union troops ] . " Nonetheless , Beauregard received the bulk of the acclaim from the press and general public . On July 23 , Johnston recommended to President Davis that Beauregard be promoted to full general . Davis approved , and Beauregard ' s date of rank was established as the date of his victory , July 21 . After Bull Run , Beauregard advocated the use of a standardized battle flag other than the " Stars and Bars " Confederate national flag to avoid visual confusion with the U . S . flag . He worked with Johnston and William Porcher Miles to create the Confederate Battle Flag . Confederate ladies visiting Beauregard ' s army contributed silk material from their dresses to create the first three flags , for Beauregard , Johnston , and Earl Van Dorn ; thus , the first flags contained more feminine pink than martial red . Throughout his career , Beauregard worked to have the flag adopted , and he helped to make it the most popular symbol of the Confederacy . As the Army went into winter quarters , Beauregard caused considerable friction with the Confederate high command . He strongly advocated an invasion of Maryland to threaten the flank and rear of Washington . With his plan rebuffed as impractical , he requested reassignment to New Orleans , which he assumed would be under Union attack in the near future , but his request was denied . He quarreled with Commissary General Lucius B . Northrop ( a personal friend of Davis ) about the inadequate supplies available to his army . He issued public statements challenging the ability of the Confederate Secretary of War to give commands to a full general . And he enraged President Davis when his report about Bull Run was printed in the newspaper , which suggested that Davis ' s interference with Beauregard ' s plans prevented the pursuit and full destruction of McDowell ' s army and the capture of Washington . Shiloh and Corinth . Having become a political liability in Virginia , Beauregard was transferred to Tennessee to become second - in - command to General Albert Sidney Johnston ( no relation to Joseph E . Johnston ) in his Army of Mississippi , effective March 14 , 1862 . The two generals planned the concentration of Confederate forces to oppose the advance of Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant before he could combine his army with that of Maj . Gen . Don Carlos Buell in a thrust up the Tennessee River toward Corinth , Mississippi . In the Battle of Shiloh , which began April 6 , 1862 , the Confederates launched a surprise attack against Grant ' s Army of the Tennessee and nearly defeated it . Once again a more senior general named Johnston deferred to the junior Beauregard in planning the attack . The massive frontal assault was marred by Beauregard ' s improper organization of forces — successive attacks by corps in lines long , rather than assigning each corps a discrete portion of the line for a side - by - side assault . This arrangement caused intermingling of units and confusion of command ; it failed to concentrate mass at the appropriate place on the line to affect the overall objectives of the attack . In midafternoon , Johnston , who was near the front of the battle action , was mortally wounded . Beauregard , positioned in the rear of the army to send reinforcements forward , assumed command of the army and Johnston ' s overall Western department ( officially designated " Department Number Two " ) . As darkness fell , he chose to call off the attack against Grant ' s final defensive line , which had contracted into a tight semicircle backed up to the Tennessee River at Pittsburg Landing . Beauregard ' s decision was one of the most controversial of the Civil War . Numerous veterans and historians have wondered what might have happened if the assault had gone forward into the night . Beauregard believed that the battle was essentially won and his men could finish off Grant in the morning . He knew the terrain to be crossed ( a steep ravine containing a creek named Dill Branch ) was extremely difficult and Grant ' s defensive line was heavy with massed artillery . Unbeknownst to Beauregard , Buell ' s Army of the Ohio began arriving that afternoon , and he and Grant launched a massive counterattack on April 7 . Overwhelmed , the Confederates retreated to Corinth . Grant was temporarily disgraced by the surprise attack and near defeat , causing his superior , Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck , to assume field command of the combined armies . Halleck cautiously and slowly approached Beauregard ' s fortifications at Corinth ; his action became derisively called the Siege of Corinth . Beauregard withdrew from Corinth on May 29 to Tupelo , Mississippi . He was able to deceive Halleck into thinking the Confederates were about to attack ; he ran empty trains back and forth through the town while whistles blew and troops cheered as if massive reinforcements were arriving . Beauregard retreated because of the overwhelming Union force and because of contaminated water supplies in Corinth . In April and May , the Confederates lost almost as many men to death by disease in Corinth as had been killed in battle at Shiloh . Nevertheless , his leaving the critical rail junction at Corinth without a fight was another controversial decision . When Beauregard went on medical leave without requesting permission in advance , President Davis relieved him of command and replaced him with Gen . Braxton Bragg . Return to Charleston . At Beauregard ' s request , his allies in the Confederate Congress petitioned Davis to restore his command in the West . Davis remained angry at Beauregard ' s absence and told him he should have stayed at his post even if he had to be carried around in a litter . He wrote , " If the whole world were to ask me to restore General Beauregard to the command which I have already given to General Bragg , I would refuse it . " Beauregard was ordered to Charleston and took command of coastal defenses in South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida , replacing Maj . Gen . John C . Pemberton . The latter was promoted to lieutenant general and transferred to command the defenses of Vicksburg , Mississippi . Beauregard was unhappy with his new assignment , believing that he deserved command of one of the great Confederate field armies . He performed successfully , however , preventing the capture of Charleston by Union naval and land attacks in 1863 . On April 7 , 1863 , Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont , commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , led an ironclad attack against Fort Sumter that was repulsed by highly accurate artillery fire from Beauregard ' s forces . In July through September 1863 , land forces under Brig . Gen . Quincy A . Gillmore launched a series of attacks on Fort Wagner on Morris Island and other fortifications at the mouth of the harbor , while Rear Adm . John A . Dahlgren attempted to destroy Fort Sumter . Because the latter operation failed , the successful seizure of Morris Island was not effective in threatening Charleston . During this period , Beauregard promoted innovative naval defense strategies , such as early experimentation with submarine s , naval mine s ( called " torpedoes " in the Civil War ) , and with a small vessel called a torpedo - ram . A swift boat fitted with a torpedo on a pole projecting from its bow under water , it could be used to surprise an enemy vessel and impale it underneath the water line . He was also busy devising strategies for other generals in the Confederacy . He proposed that some of the state governors meet with Union governors of the Western states ( what are called the Midwest states today ) for a peace conference . The Davis administration rejected the idea , but it caused considerable political maneuvering by Davis ' s enemies in the Congress . Beauregard also proposed a grand strategy — submitted anonymously through his political allies so that it was not tainted by his reputation — to reinforce the Western armies at the expense of Robert E . Lee ' s army in Virginia , destroy the Federal army in Tennessee , which would induce Ulysses S . Grant to relieve pressure on Vicksburg and maneuver his army into a place where it could be destroyed . The Confederate Army would continue to Ohio , and induce the Western states to ally with the Confederacy . Meanwhile , a fleet of torpedo - rams built in England could be used to recapture New Orleans , ending the war . There is no record that his plan was ever officially presented to the government . While visiting his forces in Florida , which had just repelled a Union advance at Jacksonville , Beauregard received a telegram that his wife had died on March 2 , 1864 . Living in Union - occupied New Orleans , she had been seriously ill for two years . A Northern - leaning local newspaper printed an opinion that her condition had been exacerbated by the actions of her husband . This so fanned negative popular opinion that 6 , 000 people attended her funeral . Union Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks provided a steamer to carry her body upriver for burial in her native parish . Beauregard wrote that he would like to rescue " her hallowed grave " at the head of an army . Richmond . In April 1864 , Beauregard saw little opportunity for military glory because he foresaw that there would be no more significant assaults against Charleston , and prospects for a major field command were unlikely . He requested a leave to recover from fatigue and a chronic throat ailment , but he instead received an order to report to Weldon , North Carolina , near the Virginia border , to play a key role in the defense of Virginia . His new assignment , the Department of North Carolina and Cape Fear , also included Virginia south of the James River . When he took command on April 18 , he renamed it , on his own initiative , the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia . The Confederates were preparing for the spring offensive of Union Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant and were concerned that attacks south of Richmond could interrupt the critical supply lines to Richmond and the army of Robert E . Lee . As Grant moved south against Lee in the Overland Campaign , Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler launched the surprise Bermuda Hundred Campaign with landings up the James River . Beauregard successfully lobbied with Jefferson Davis ' s military adviser , Braxton Bragg , to prevent significant units of his small force from being transferred north of Richmond to the aid of Lee . His timely action , coupled with the military incompetence of Butler , bottled up the Union army , nullifying its threat to Petersburg and Lee ' s supply line . Now that this sector was stable , pressure began to rise to transfer troops from Beauregard ' s front to Lee ' s . Beauregard did send a division ( Maj . Gen . Robert Hoke ' s ) to Lee for the Battle of Cold Harbor , but Lee urgently wanted more and took the step of offering Beauregard command of the right wing of the Army of Northern Virginia for his cooperation . Beauregard replied in a passive – aggressive manner , " I am willing to do anything for our success , but cannot leave my Department without orders of War Department . " After Cold Harbor , Lee and the Confederate high command were unable to anticipate Grant ' s next move , but Beauregard ' s strategic sense allowed him to make a prophetic prediction : Grant would cross the James River and attempt to seize Petersburg , which was lightly defended , but contained critical rail junctions supporting Richmond and Lee . Despite persistent pleas to reinforce this sector , Beauregard could not convince his colleagues of the danger . On June 15 , his weak 5 , 400 - man force — including boys , old men , and patients from military hospitals — resisted an assault by 16 , 000 Federals , known as the Second Battle of Petersburg . He gambled by withdrawing his Bermuda Hundred defenses to reinforce the city , assuming correctly that Butler would not capitalize on the opening . His gamble succeeded , and he held Petersburg long enough for Lee ' s army to arrive . It was arguably his finest combat performance of the war . Beauregard continued commanding the defenses of Petersburg in the early days of the siege , but with the loss of the Weldon Railroad in the Battle of Globe Tavern ( August 18 – 21 ) , he was criticized for not attacking more forcefully and he became dissatisfied with the command arrangements under Lee . He hoped for an independent command , but his desires were thwarted in two instances : Lee chose Lt . Gen . Jubal Early to lead an expedition north through the Shenandoah Valley and threaten Washington , and Davis chose Lt . Gen . John Bell Hood to replace the faltering Joseph E . Johnston in the Atlanta Campaign . Return to the West . After the fall of Atlanta in September 1864 , President Davis considered replacing John Bell Hood in command of the Army of Tennessee and he asked Robert E . Lee to find out if Beauregard would be interested . Beauregard was indeed interested , but it is unclear whether Davis seriously considered the appointment , and in the end decided to retain Hood . Davis met with Beauregard in Augusta , Georgia , on October 2 and offered him command of the newly created Department of the West , responsible for the five Southern states from Georgia to the Mississippi River , with the armies of Hood and Richard Taylor under his ostensible command . However , it was a thankless job that was limited to logistical and advisory responsibilities , without true operational control of the armies unless he should join them in person during an emergency . Nevertheless , anxious to return to the field , he accepted the assignment . The major field operation of the fall was Hood ' s Franklin - Nashville Campaign , an invasion of Tennessee , which he undertook despite Beauregard ' s counsel that it made little operational or logistical sense . Hood did not treat Beauregard with the respect due to the department commander , communicating his plans reluctantly and making movements without regard to the consequences for his supply line , which Beauregard scrambled to maintain . While Hood traveled through Alabama and into Tennessee , Union Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman began his March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah , which focused Beauregard ' s attention back to Georgia . He was ineffective in stopping , or even delaying , Sherman ' s advance . He had inadequate local forces and was reluctant to strip defenses from other locations to concentrate them against Sherman . Furthermore , Sherman did an excellent job of deceiving the Confederates as to the intermediate and final targets of his march . Savannah fell on December 21 and Sherman ' s army began to march north into South Carolina in January . Also in late December , Beauregard found out that Hood ' s army had been severely damaged in its defeat at the Battle of Nashville ; there were very few men in fighting condition who could oppose Sherman ' s advance . Beauregard attempted to concentrate his small forces before Sherman could reach Columbia , South Carolina , the state capital . His urgent dispatches to Richmond were treated with disbelief — Davis and Robert E . Lee ( now the general in chief of all the Confederate armies ) could not believe that Sherman was advancing without a supply line as quickly as Beauregard was observing him do . Also concerned about what he considered Beauregard ' s " feeble health , " Lee recommended to Davis that he be replaced by Joseph E . Johnston . The change of command came on February 22 and Beauregard , although outwardly cooperative and courteous to Johnston , was bitterly disappointed at his replacement . For the remainder of the war , Beauregard was Johnston ' s subordinate , assigned to routine matters without combat responsibilities . Johnston and Beauregard met with President Davis on April 13 and their assessment of the Confederate situation helped convince Davis that Johnston should meet with Sherman to negotiate a surrender of his army . The two surrendered to Sherman near Durham , North Carolina , on April 26 , 1865 , and were paroled in Greensboro on May 2 . Beauregard traveled to Mobile and then took a U . S . naval transport to his hometown of New Orleans . Postbellum life . After the war , Beauregard was reluctant to seek amnesty as a former Confederate officer by publicly swearing an oath of loyalty , but both Lee and Johnston counseled him to do so , which he did before the mayor of New Orleans on September 16 , 1865 . He was one of many Confederate officers issued a mass pardon by Pres . Andrew Johnson on July 4 , 1868 . His final privilege as an American citizen , the right to run for public office , was restored when he petitioned the Congress for relief and the bill on his behalf was signed by Pres . Grant on July 24 , 1876 . Beauregard pursued a position in the Brazilian Army in 1865 , but declined the Brazilians ' offer . He claimed that the positive attitude of Pres . Johnson toward the South swayed his decision . " I prefer to live here , poor and forgotten , than to be endowed with honor and riches in a foreign country . " He also declined offers to take command of the armies of Romania and Egypt . As a lifelong Democrat , Beauregard worked to end Republican rule during Reconstruction . His outrage over the excesses of Reconstruction was a principal source for his indecision about remaining in the United States and his flirtation with foreign armies , which lasted until 1875 . He was active in the Reform Party , an association of conservative New Orleans businessmen , which spoke in favor of civil rights and voting for the recently freed slaves , hoping to form alliances between African - Americans and Democrats to vote out the Radical Republicans in the state legislature . Beauregard ' s first employment following the war was in October 1865 as chief engineer and general superintendent of the New Orleans , Jackson and Great Northern Railroad . In 1866 he was promoted to president , a position he retained until 1870 , when he was ousted in a hostile takeover . This job overlapped with that of president of the New Orleans and Carrollton Street Railway ( 1866 – 1876 ) , where he invented a system of cable - powered street railway cars . Once again , Beauregard made a financial success of the company , but was fired by stockholders who wished to take direct management of the company . After the loss of these two railway executive positions , Beauregard spent time briefly at a variety of companies and civil engineering pursuits , but his personal wealth became assured when he was recruited as a supervisor of the Louisiana Lottery in 1877 . He and former Confederate general Jubal Early presided over lottery drawings and made numerous public appearances , lending the effort some respectability . For 15 years the two generals served in these positions , but the public became opposed to government - sponsored gambling and the lottery was closed down by the legislature . 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 his friend Alfred Roman ' s " The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States " ( 1884 ) . He contributed the article " The Battle of Bull Run " to " Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine " in November 1884 . During these years , Beauregard and Davis published a series of bitter accusations and counter - accusations retrospectively blaming each other for the Confederate defeat . Beauregard served as adjutant general for the Louisiana state militia , 1879 – 88 . In 1888 , he was elected as commissioner of public works in New Orleans . When John Bell Hood and his wife died in 1879 , leaving ten destitute orphans , Beauregard used his influence to get Hood ' s memoirs published , with all proceeds going to the children . He was appointed by the governor of Virginia to be the grand marshal of the festivities associated with the laying of the cornerstone of Robert E . Lee ' s statue in Richmond . But when Jefferson Davis died in 1889 , Beauregard refused the honor of heading the funeral procession , saying " We have always been enemies . I cannot pretend I am sorry he is gone . I am no hypocrite . " Beauregard died in his sleep in New Orleans . The cause of death was " heart disease , aortic insufficiency , and probably myocarditis . " Edmund Kirby Smith , the last surviving full general of the Confederacy , served as the " chief mourner " as Beauregard was interred in the vault of the Army of Tennessee in historic Metairie Cemetery . In memoriam . Beauregard Parish in western Louisiana is named for general Beauregard , as is Camp Beauregard , a former U . S . Army base , and now a National Guard camp near Pineville in central Louisiana . The unincorporated community of Beauregard , Alabama is named for Beauregard . An equestrian monument by Alexander Doyle depicts Beauregard at Beauregard Circle , the intersection where Esplanade Avenue enters City Park in New Orleans . Beauregard ' s residence in New Orleans is now called the Beauregard - Keyes House , and is operated as a historic house museum . An undergraduate dormitory at Louisiana State University is named in honor of Beauregard .