General P. G. T. Beauregard |
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Birth name | Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard |
Nickname(s) |
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Born |
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana |
May 28, 1818
Died | February 20, 1893 New Orleans, Louisiana |
(aged 74)
Buried | Tomb of the Army of Tennessee, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana |
Allegiance | United States of America (1838–1861) Confederate States of America (1861–1865) |
Service/ |
United States Army Confederate States Army |
Years of service | 1838–1865 |
Rank | Brevet Major (USA) General (CSA) |
Commands held |
Army of the Potomac Army of Mississippi |
Battles/wars |
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Other work | Author, civil servant, politician, inventor |
Signature |
Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893) was an American military officer who was 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 as superintendent at West Point in 1861, after the South 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. 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.