Biography

Louisiana-born author, civil servant, politician, inventor, and first prominent general for the Confederacy.  Beauregard was trained as a civil engineer at the U.S. Military Academy and served as an engineer in the Mexican-American War.  Following an extremely brief tenure as the superintendent of the Military Academy in 1861, he became the first Confederate brigadier general and commanded the defenses of Charleston, SC, for the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.  Three months later he was the victor at the First Battle of Bull Run. Other major battles connected to Beauregard are the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and the Siege of Corinth in Northern Mississippi. He also defended Charleston from repeated naval and land attacks in 1863.  His arguably greatest achievement was saving the city of Petersburg, VA, and thus also the Confederate capital of Richmond, from assaults by overwhelmingly superior Union Army forces in the June of 1864.  However, his influence over Confederate strategy was marred by his poor relationships with Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other generals. He convinced Davis and the remaining cabinet members that the war needed to end in April 1865. Following his career, Beauregard was one of the few wealthy Confederate veterans because of his role in promoting the Louisiana Lottery.