Beauregard, Pierre G. T.

Beauregard, Pierre G. T. (Gustave Toutant)

(1818–93) Confederate soldier; born in St. Bernard Parish, La. An 1838 West Point graduate, he was twice wounded in the Mexican War. He resigned from the U.S. service during the secession crisis. He opened the Civil War with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, S.C., commanded the Confederate left wing at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, succeeded the mortally wounded A. S. Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee at Shiloh in 1862, and commanded the Charleston defenses during Union siege operations of 1862–64. Small and animated, Beauregard graded high in defense of static positions but performed less ably on a fluid battlefield. After the war he held several public offices in Louisiana.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.