Beauregard, P G T

Beauregard, P(ierre) G(ustave) T(outant)

(born May 28, 1818, near New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Feb. 20, 1893, New Orleans) U.S. military leader. He graduated from West Point in 1838 and served in the Mexican War. After Louisiana seceded in 1861, he resigned his commission and became a general in the Confederate army. He commanded the forces that bombarded Fort Sumter, S.C., was on the field at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861), and assumed command at the Battle of Shiloh after the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (1862). He conducted the defenses of Charleston, S.C., and Richmond, Va. Though a capable commander, his penchant for questioning orders sometimes bordered on insubordination. After the war he quarreled with other generals' accounts of his role.