Pierre Beauregard

Pierre Beauregard (1818-93), Confederate general. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, and educated at the U.S. Military Academy. An engineer officer, he served in the Mexican War (1846-48) and remained in the U.S. Army until February 1861, when he resigned to join the insurgent Confederate forces; in April he directed the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, the first action of the American Civil War. Beauregard was second in command at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861). At Shiloh (April 1862) he took command when his superior, General Albert S. Johnston, was killed, and he led the Confederate withdrawal from the field. In 1863 he defended Charleston from attack by the Union navy, and in May 1864 he defeated a Union army under General Benjamin F. Butler at Drury's Bluff, Virginia. After the war Beauregard was president of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Mississippi Railroad and later was adjutant general of Louisiana.