G. T. Beauregard from his early youth displayed a strong proclivity for a military career. In deference to his desire he was sent to a preparatory military school in New York, and from thence to the military academy of West Point. In 1838 he graduated with distinction second in his class, and was assigned first to the artillery, then to the engineer corps, with the rank of lieutenant. He was then sent on engineering duty to Fort Adams, Barataria bay, the passes of the Mississippi river and Fort McHenry until the opening of the war with Mexico. Lieut. Beauregard was afterward employed in the construction of the defenses of Tampico, 1846-47. He then took part in the siege operations of Vera Cruz, in March; Cerro Gordo, in April; Contreras, in August; Chapultepec, in September, and the siege of the City of Mexico, where he was twice wounded in the fail of that year. He was twice breveted, first, captain, then major, for the gallantry of his conduct. He afterward obtained the full rank of captain of engineers, in 1853, for fourteen years of continuous and most meritorious services in the United States army. To illustrate the ability of this young officer it is worthy of note that during the Mexican war, at a council of general officers, the attack on the City of Mexico being under consideration, Lieut. Beauregard advocated that the assault he made by the western approaches, contrary to the expressed opinions of all the officers present except Gen. Scott, the general-in-chief. Upon further discussion, however, they appreciated the value of the suggestion and adopted it, thus achieving the brilliant success Lieut. Beauregard had foreseen. At the close of the Mexican war he was assigned to the superintendency of the fortifications in Mobile harbor, their construction and repairs, also those of the Mississippi river and lake Pontchartrain, and of the custom house in the city of New Orleans. His supervisory duties extended over the gulf coast from Florida to the Rio Grande. On January 28, 1861, he received from the United States government the honorable distinction of the superintendence of the military academy of West Point, This position he held but for a few days, resigning his commission in the federal army on February 20, 1861, to follow the fortunes of his native state, which had just, withdrawn from the Union, and with a view to offer his services, untrammeled, to the confederate government. Before entering upon a sketch of the eminent services rendered the confederacy by Gen. Beauregard, a cursory study of his character, proclivities and abilities must be of interest. Coming, as stated, from a race whose martial tendencies had ever led them to take part in the wars and battles of the periods in which they lived, it was to be expected that their descendant of the nineteenth century would he imbued with the same spirit, and would, therefore, join heart and soul in that great military movement inaugurated by eleven states of the American Union, with a view to obtain redress for wrongs they conscientiously believed had been inflicted upon them by the central government. Interwoven with the soldier, there was in Gen. Beauregard, as were in his ancestors, a stern sense of honor which would preclude all compromise with conscience and duty, and a scrupulous integrity, admirable in its simplicity. Under a reserve of manner, the outcome of a delicate withdrawal from the public gaze of personal feelings and affairs, Gen. Beauregard is a man of warm and generous feelings, steadfast in his friendships and unalterably firm in his political creeds, which are those of Thomas Jefferson, in favor of a broad and pure democracy. If exclusive in his personal relations, his manner is marked by an unvarying and simple courtesy, doubtless an heirloom inherited by him from generations of polished and educated forefathers. The state of Louisiana has produced some remarkable men; but none more worthy of admiration, pr of a higher place in history, than Gen. G. T. Beauregard. Upon resigning from the Union army, Major Beauregard tendered his services to the confederate government, then sitting in Montgomery, Ala., the provisional capital of the southern confederacy. His first act was to urge upon Governor Moore, of Louisiana; to effectively arm Forts St. Philip and Jackson, at the entrance of the Lower Mississippi. He also drew up an admirable plan for the construction of two floating booms, to be used in connection with these forts, for the protection of the city of New Orleans. After events proved the sagacity of his suggestions, when that great city fell - helpless and undefended - into the hands of the federal forces which victoriously reached its gates by the almost unguarded river front. In the month of February, 1861, Major Beauregard received from President Davis a commission of provisional brigadier-general, the first issued by that government, with the order to repair to Charleston, S. C., there to take command of the state troops. This order was the result of the complication which had arisen in that state after her withdrawal from the Union by Major Anderson's refusal to evacuate Fort Sumter, with the federal troops under him. Preparations had been partially made for the bombardment of this fort, which were remodeled and improved by General Beauregard; and, after his arrival in Charleston, the capitulation, after a two days' defense, has now become an episode of history, being the opening scene of the four years' bloody and heroic struggle between the North and the South. General Beauregard had barely organized a system of coast defenses for the state of South Carolina when he was ordered by the war department to repair to Virginia, to take command there of the main portion of the confederate army, on the Alexandria line. This order he obeyed, arriving at Manassas, Junction on June 1. The capacity to organize and handle skillfully both troops and subordinate commanders; the keen attention to elaborate details, which marks the true and scientific officer, and the unerring wisdom of his selection of strategic points, now signalized General Beauregard, and drew upon him the confidence and admiration of the southern states. Upon assuming command in Virginia, he strained every nerve to make effective two branches of the service, upon which often rest the victory or defeat of veteran troops, all the more so of those splendid, undisciplined commands, gathered from the various states, barely organized and badly equipped, which then made up the -armies of the confederacy. These two branches which attracted General Beauregard's anxious care were the commissary and the quartermaster departments. Had his efforts been better seconded, and their great importance appreciated elsewhere, the mobilization of bodies of troops would have been a possibility, and the battle of Manassas a complete victory won by General Beauregard, with the cooperation of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, over the federal army under General McDowell, on July 21, 1861, would have been followed by an immediate advance of the victorious confederate troops. The failure to throw forward the confederate army was due to a total lack of transportation. The intense care taken of this branch of the service, in the military organizations of the European nations, show the sagacity of General Beauregard's ceaseless, if fruitless, efforts in this direction. The curtailed limits of the present sketch precludes any detailed account of General Beauregard's military operations in defense of the confederacy. One fact comes out clear and conspicuous, however, in the history of this remarkable commander, which is, that his efforts and policy were ever for concentration and aggression. He was imbued with the necessity of massing the confederate troops upon some one important point, and by rapid and aggressive movements to attack the separate bodies of the federal army. This was never the policy of the confederate government, and his efforts were not seconded, nor were his far-sighted views in this respect appreciated. It is of history that, after the battle of Manassas, General Beauregard laid before the confederate cabinet a plan of operations, which, viewed by the light of after events, was admirable for its capabilities and its proposed results. The plan urged was to concentrate all the confederate troops, not essential elsewhere, on the Potomac, cross the river, and attack the city of Washington, then unfortified, and unprotected. The knowledge now had, of the then condition of affairs in the federal capital, justifies the belief that the movement was feasible; and, in all probabilities, would have been successful. But it may be said the confederate government- lacked both military capacity and statesmanship. A procrastinating and aimless policy, both internal and foreign, wasted the slender resources of the country, annuled the victories of the armies. and General Beauregard's earnest entreaties for the issuance of orders by the war department for a vigorous, aggressive movement was refused, and the strategic value of the advice unappreciated.
Toward the close of January, 1862, General Beauregard was urged by a committee of the representatives of the Mississippi Valley states to accept the conduct of the defense of the Mississippi valley, about the security of which much apprehension was felt. Although deeply reluctant to leave the splendid Army of the Potomac, through a patriotic desire to serve his country to the best of his ability, General Beauregard consented to the transfer. The command given him included the forces under Maj. Gen. Polk, with headquarters at Columbus, Ky., within the Department of Kentucky and Tennessee, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnston. General Beauregard was assured, on the authority of the secretary of war, Judah P. Benjamin, that the effective force under General A. S. Johnston amounted to 70,000 men. But, upon reaching the west and conferring with General Johnston, he learned that the entire confederate force under that commander was barely 40,000. At this time General Buell was near Bowling Green with 75,000 men; General Grant at Cairo with 20,000, and General Pope in Missouri with 30,000, all splendidly armed and equipped. There were tens of thousands of men who were anxious to enter the army in defense of their threatened homes, but the confederate government had no arms to give them. In this connection it is proper to relate the anxious efforts of General Beauregard at the opening of hostilities to have accepted an offer made by the English branch of the firm of John Frazer & Co., of Liverpool and Charleston, by that house, for the confederacy, of ten large and powerful steamers belonging to the East India company, then lying idle at the docks in London. The offer was to man and equip these ships, send them to the confederate states, whose ports were at that time all open; export enough cotton to pay for them, and also for the purchase of arms to supply the confederate armies. The proposal was made to the cabinet, General Beauregard having used his influence in its support; but it was rejected after but slight deliberation. The wail for arms from the men in the west in face of the overwhelming invasion of the splendidly equipped federal forces is a reflection which needs no comment upon the mismanagement of the affairs of the confederacy. The fearful condition of things in the west aroused General Beauregard's utmost apprehensions. With the rapidity of decision and daring of the true soldier, he proposed to General Johnston to abandon Bowling Green, concentrate at Fort Donelson, and force a battle with General Grant, while he was isolated. General Johnston preferred a more cautious plan, which failed of success at all points. The fall of Forts Henry and Donelson pressed the conviction more deeply upon General Beauregard that our hope lay in an aggressive movement before the federal forces now converging together could consolidate. He therefore drew up the plan of campaign which culminated in the great battle of Shiloh, and to which General Johnston gave his consent and cooperation. Although victorious the first day; the confederate army was compelled to withdraw from the field. General Beauregard's subsequent evacuation of and retreat from Corinth to Tupelo is one of the finest military feats accomplished during the war. Owing to his broken health, General Beauregard now demanded a temporary leave of absence. The cabinet at Richmond, acting in an unfriendly spirit, withdrew the command of the western army from him. He was then assigned to duty in the Department of South Carolina and Georgia, with headquarters in Charleston, and he arrived in that city September 13, 1862. The defense of the city and harbor of Charleston against the combined naval and land attacks of the federal forces, under General Gillmore and Commodore Dahlgren, is, without question, the most brilliant for being the most successful episode of the war on the side of the confederacy; and as a ,,monument of engineering skill on the part of General Beauregard, stands as a model and an encouragement to future generations. The close scrutiny of after years has revealed the fact that military engineering science, if sustained by troops such as General Beauregard then handled, can baffle the assaults of both superior numbers and superior armaments. To recount the superb manner in which General Beauregard, by his consummate skill as an engineer officer, erected those fortifications which rendered the city of Charleston invulnerable up to the close of the war, is beyond the scope of the present paper; nor can the incomparable defense of Fort Sumter, and the prolonged holding of Morris Island receive here more than a passing notice. The mere recital that Sumter, perhaps the best constructed fort of the United States, under the terrific bombardment of the iron-clad fleet sent for her certain destruction, was reduced to a mass of crumbling ruins, her casemates and walls dismantled, and her capacious powder magazine left at the mercy of shot and shell, and yet, that she repelled each assault with terrific loss to the federal fleet, and remained under the confederate flag until the last days of the war, is sufficient as a testimony to the heroism of the officers and men of her garrison and the splendid confidence had in both by General Beauregard. Nor was the defense of Battery Wagner inferior. Indeed, in the eyes of educated soldiers, General Beauregard's defensive operations in and around Charleston are quoted as being the most scientific feat of war of this century. In the month of April, 186,, General Beauregard was relieved from the command of this department and ordered to repair to Weldon, N. C., to operate in conjunction with General Lee for the defense of Richmond. His soldierly farewell address issued to the troops which had served under him during some twenty-two months with admirable efficiency may be here quoted: "Should you ever become discouraged, remember that a people from whom have sprung such soldiers as those who defended Sumter and Wagner can never be subjugated in a war of independence." General Beauregard was now assigned to the command of the department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. A glance over the theater of war stretching toward Richmond convinced him of the folly of the Newbern expedition, ordered by the war department, and the consequent danger to Petersburg and to the capital, resulting from thus scattering the weak confederate forces. His remonstrance to that effect was unheeded, however until the advance of the federals upon Petersburg created an uncontrollable panic in the cabinet. When finally left to use his own discretion in face of the threatening danger, he rapidly gathered troops from all available quarters and dashed forward to check Butler's advance. He reached Drury's Bluff during the night of May 13, with an escort of 1,200 men. Upon examining a topographical map and seeing that both General Lee and himself occupied just then the interior lines, General Beauregard submitted a plan of operations to General Bragg which for brilliancy and wisdom could not be surpassed. He proposed that General Lee should fall back to the Chickahominy, that 10,000 of his men be rapidly transferred to himself, also the 15,000 reserves in Richmond. That with these reinforcements, at daybreak on the morning of the 15th he attack Butler on his right flank, cut him off from Bermuda Hundred, while from Petersburg Whiting attack his right rear, with a view to press him back upon the James, above Drury's bluff. This movement being successfully accomplished, that he should throw his whole force across the James, and strike General Grant on his left flank while General Lee would attack him in front. But neither General Bragg nor President Davis would consent to the movement, and, as ever, a defensive policy was followed which but prolonged the sufferings of the people and the army, and which gave, each day, accrued chances of success to the gathering hosts of the Federal army. The battle of Drury's Bluff was fought, Butler was beaten and Richmond was temporarily saved. But, as General Beauregard had stated to the president, his defeat alone could be only a barren victory. It now became apparent to General Beauregard, who was with his troops in front of Petersburg, that General Grantwas seeking to move around General Lee's left flank in the direction of the ,James. He communicated this conviction to General Bragg, but the latter remained incredulous. General Grant was, however, making the advance, and had massed Smith's, Burnside's, Wright's, Hancock's and Warren's corps for the passage of the river, and on the 14th he was at Bermuda Hundred. The forces under General Beauregard to oppose this formidable array formed an aggregate of 2,200 men, reinforced on the 17th by about 9.000 more. The holding of the lines before Petersburg by General Beauregard from the 15th to the 18th of Jane, and the repulse of the repeated assaults of these veteran federal corps by a force seven times weaker in number, worn out by continuous service, was truly a great feat of war, and the splendid strategy of his withdrawal by night from his advanced lines to occupy shorter ones more to the rear, constructed without implements and under appalling difficulties in the face of such a foe, will live in history as a matchless instance of a commander's ability and of the valor and tenacity of the troops under him. General Beauregard, on the 17th, had not more than 10,000 effectives, mostly unprotected by field works, which successfully held in check four divisions of the federal army, aggregating not less than 90,000 men. On the 18th, at 11 o'clock A.M., General Lee reached Petersburg with reinforcements; a longer delay on his part would have been fatal. Again General Beauregard urged a united attack upon the Federals, in view of their discouragement incident upon their failure to take Petersburg. The sagacity of the opinion that the confederates had everything to gain and nothing to lose by an abrupt termination of hostilities, one way or the other, was not appreciated. The siege of Petersburg was now inaugurated but the confederate lines having been completed and strengthened, were pronounced by the federal chiefs of artillery and engineers to be impregnable. In September General Beauregard was ordered by the war department to repair to Charleston to await instructions. He was then assigned to the Military Division of the West, a command vague in the authority conferred, covering nearly five states, but without troops directly under his orders and over a territory where discouragement and distrust of the government had taken hold of the people. With a patient disinterestedness he accepted. In stating that General Beauregard was ever in favor of bold and aggressive movements as being the safest, it must not be inferred that he lacked caution. He would not have been the remarkable commander history will ever consider him had he been wanting in this essential characteristic. While in command of the western division, his opposition to the proposed advance of General Hood into middle Tennessee, not because the plan was defective but because he doubted the ability of the commander to successfully conduct so perilous a movement, is admirable from the fine generalship his disapproval indicated. As the president favored the movement, it was attempted and failure ensued. The disintegration and wreckage of the once splendid Army of Tennessee, whose heroism and fortitude had all been wasted, now supervened, and General Hood was relieved of its command. The shattered corps were then directed upon South Carolina. where General Hardee urgently called for General Beauregard. Toward the close of January, 1865, he arrived in Augusta. The effort now was to oppose Sherman's advance through South Carolina. On the 1st of February, the right and left wings of Sherman's army, 15,000 each, with Kilpatrick's cavalry, 4,000 strong, had crossed the Coosawhatchie, and was marching in a northerly direction. General Beauregard. knowing 'the extreme insufficiency of the confederate forces under his control, telegraphed to President Davis to urge a concentration at Columbia of Hardee's, S. D. Lee's, Cheatham's and Stewart's corps, and of a the troops which could be possibly sent from Virginia and North Carolina, with a view to defeat Sherman before he could effect his junction. The hour was late and the chances desperate but still it was a last hope for the confederacy. The government, with a fatal blindness, followed persistently to the very last its old error of awaiting events, and of opposing superior forces with disjointed and inferior commands. All after efforts to save the confederacy wore desultory and futile. Sherman swept triumphantly through Carolina, burning and destroying Columbia, and every village and hamlet on his route, and successfully effected his junction with Schofield. The war department had instructed General Johnston to assume command of the southern army, and to co-operate with General Beauregard. But without reinforcements without arms, without transportation, and without hope, how could the ruined fortunes of the southern states be redeemed? Richmond and Charleston were evacuated; all the untenable seaports and harbor defenses had to be abandoned; place after place fell before the overpowering federal forces, and on the 15th of March General Sherman's entire army, consisting of the Seventeenth, the Fifteenth, the Fourteenth, and the Twentieth corps, with its cavalry support, crossed the Cape Fear river, and marched on Goldsboro. General Lee, with the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, and General Johnston and General Beauregard surrendered their forces to General Sherman, at Greensboro on April 27. The southern cause, based upon those principals of individual and state independence which Thomas Jefferson and the founders of the American Union had incorporated in the constitution which was to govern the free states of America was lost, as history will aver, through a lack of sagacious good management and statesmanship by its government. The armies of the confederacy were incomparable. General Beauregard then returned to his native state, Louisiana, where he has ever been the recipient of the affection and admiration of his fellow-citizens. He was twice married. By his first wife, Miss Laura Marie Viller‚, great grand daughter of the Chevalier de Viller‚, he had two sons and one daughter. He had been but recently married to his second wife, Miss Caroline Deslondes, daughter of a prominent planter of Louisiana, when he entered the confederate service. This lady died toward the close of the war, leaving no issue. General Beauregard's elder son, Ren‚ Toutant-Beauregard, had been presented by the state of South Carolina, through Governor Pickens, in recognition of his father's eminent services to that state, with a commission of first lieutenant in the First South Carolina battalion of Light Artillery regulars. He was promoted, first, captain, then major of that command. After the close of the war he studied law, graduated at the bar, and was elected one of the appellate judges of Louisiana, a position which he now holds. He married Miss Clemence C‚nas, daughter of Mr. H. B. C‚nas of New Orleans, and has several children now of a tender age. General Beauregard's second son, Henri Toutant. Beauregard, was, during the early days of the war, presented by the state of South Carolina with a cadetship in the State Military academy, where he remained during a period of two years. He then joined a South Carolina regiment and served up to the termination of hostilities. He recently married Miss Nettie Harney, granddaughter of the late General Harney. General Beauregard's daughter, Laure Toutant-Beauregard, now deceased, married Mr. Charles Larendon, a merchant of New Orleans. She left several children, of which but one, a daughter, now survives. The history of the state of Louisiana contains no career more brilliant and illustrious than that of General Beauregard. The services he rendered his state and country will live far beyond the present epoch, and the purity and nobility of his character must remain a model and a pride to those of a coming generation. With a clearer and more accurate understanding of General Beauregard's military career during the confederate war, he will receive the acknowledgment that he was perhaps the greatest captain of the southern armies in that grand, if unsuccessful, struggle. From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, pp. 272-277. Submitted by Mike Miller