Pierre
Toutant Beauregard was born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on 28th
May, 1818. He was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point and graduated in 1838, standing 2nd in his class of 45.
He served in the Corps of Engineers during the Mexican
War (1846-48) and was wounded twice.
Beauregard was Superintendent of the US Military Academy until he
resigned in 1861 to join the Confederate
Army. His first posting was to Charleston,
South Carolina. President Jefferson Davis
took the view that after a state seceded, federal forts became the
property of the state. Beauregard was given responsibility of taking
over Fort Sumter. On 12th April, 1861,
Beauregard demanded that Major Robert
Anderson surrender Fort Sumter. Anderson replied that he would
be willing to leave the fort in two days when his supplies were exhausted.
Beauregard rejected this offer and ordered his Confederate troops
to open fire. After 34 hours of bombardment the fort was severely
damaged and Anderson was forced to surrender.
On 21st July, Beauregard took part the the first battle at Bull
Run against the Union Army led by
Irvin McDowell. The Confederate troops
led by Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston,
Thomas Stonewall Jackson and James
Jeb Stuart easily defeated the inexperienced Union troops. Northern
casualties totaled 1,492 with another 1,216 missing.
President Jefferson Davis was impressed
with Beauregard's achievements and on 31st August, was was appointed
general of the Confederate Army. On 6th
April Beauregard attacked Grant's army at Shiloh.
Taken by surprise, Grant's army suffered heavy losses until the arrival
of General Don Carlos Buell and reinforcements.
Beauregard took command when his superior, Albert
S. Johnston was killed and retreated to Corinth, Mississippi.
The Union Army suffered 13,000 casualties
and the Confederates lost 10,000. However, the Union
Army, with the arrival of General Henry
Halleck and his troops, were now the stronger and had little difficulty
driving Beauregard out of Corinth.
Beauregard was taken ill in June, 1862 and while recovering his command
of the Confederate Army went to Braxton
Bragg. When Beauregard regained his fitness he was placed in charge
of coastal defenses in Georgia and the Carolinas. In April he was
brought back to Virginia and in May 1864 he defeated a Union army
under General Benjamin Butler at Drury's
Bluff.
After the American Civil War Beauregard
was a railroad president and of the Louisiana
Lottery. Pierre Toutant Beauregard, who wrote The
Campaign and Battle of Manassas (1891), died on
February 20, 1893 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
(1)
Ulysses Grant, Personal
Memoirs of U. S. Grant (1885)
General
Albert Sidney Johnston, who commanded the Confederate forces at the
beginning of the battle (Siloh), was disabled by a wound on the afternoon
of the first day. This wound, as I understood afterwards, was not
necessarily fatal, or even dangerous. But he was a man who would not
abandon what he deemed an important trust in the face of danger and
consequently continued in the saddle, commanding, until so exhausted
by the loss of blood that he had to be taken from his horse, and soon
after died.
General Beauregard was next in rank to Johnston and succeeded to the
command, which he retained to the close of the battle and during the
subsequent retreat on Corinth, as well as in the siege of that place.
His tactics have been severely criticised by Confederate writers,
but I do not believe his fallen chief could have done any better under
the circumstances. Some of these critics claim that Shiloh was won
when Johnson fell, and that if he had not fallen the army under me
would have been annihilated or captured.
Our loss in the two days' fight was 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded and
2,885 missing. Of these, 2,103 were in the Army of the Ohio. Beauregard
reported a total loss of 10,699, of whom 1,728 were killed, 8,012
wounded and 957 missing. This estimate must be incorrect. We buried,
by actual count, more of the enemy's dead alone than is here reported,
and 4,000 was the estimate of the burial parties for the whole field.
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