PGT (Pierre Gustave Toutant) Beauregard was a Confederate general officer who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult. He signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.
General P.G.T. Beauregard was a veteran of the United States Army and the Confederate Army, having seen action in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the United States Civil War (1861-1865). Beauregard oversaw the Union surrender of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861 and was active in both the Eastern and Western Theaters of operations. Beauregard was born Pierre-Gustav Toutant de Beauregard on May 28, 1818 to an aristocratic family of French ancestry on a plantation near New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended private schools in New Orleans and New York City before he attended the prestigious West Point Academy, where he graduated second in his class in 1838. Beauregard married fellow French Creole-American, Marie Antoinette Laure Villeré in 1841. The couple had three children, but Marie died in 1850 while giving birth to their youngest child. Beauregard remarried Marguerite Caroline Deslonde in 1860, but she died during the war.
Beauregard's first language was French; he only began learning English at the age of twelve when he moved to New York City.
Due to the length of his French Christian name, which seemed quite foreign to most Americans, Beauregard signed his name "G.T." and was often known as "P.T."
P.T. served as a captain and then a major in Mexican-American war as an engineer.
He was one of the first American officers to enter Mexico City at the end of the Mexican-American War.
Between the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War, Beauregard used his engineering skills to help build river and coastal defenses in Louisiana.
Beauregard had a rivalry with fellow Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, which originated during their time in the Mexican-American War.
Beauregard was appointed full general in the Confederate Army on July 21.
Beauregard's French-Catholic was the cause of some distrust among some of the overwhelmingly Anglo-Protestant Confederate officers.
Following his performance at the First Battle of Bull Run, Beauregard was promoted to full general on July 21, 1861.
Known for having an acerbic and polarizing personality at times, Beauregard was transferred to the Western Theater of operations after the First Battle of Bull Run.
Beauregard was responsible for bringing innovations to the Confederate Navy, such as the use of early submarines.
The fortifications he ordered constructed in Petersburg, Virginia were one of the primary reasons the Confederates won the Second Battle of Petersburg (June 15-18, 1864).
Although he was a slave owner and initially bitter about the South's defeat and the end of the slave owning aristocracy, Beauregard eventually advocated black suffrage.
Beauregard died on February 20, 1893
Despite his change of views on race later in his life, an equestrian statue of P.T. Beauregard was removed from a public park in New Orleans on May 17, 2017 after numerous protests over his slave owning past.
Beauregard was born at the "Contreras" sugar-cane plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, about 20 miles outside New Orleans, to a French Creole family.
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THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1
Non-FictionThe true story of the " civil war" and how it should be called Lincoln's War, War of Southern Independence, and War of Northern Aggression This book is loving memory President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet This is also in honor of each Confederate...
