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Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard ! How large and high-sounding! But vulgar war-office officials quickly make it G. T. Beauregard. We are apt to feel that at the time of the Civil War the South was more homogeneous, more typically AngloSaxon than the North. Yet among the Confederate leaders we find Longstreet the Dutchman, Benjamin the Jew, and Beauregard, who was French as if from Paris. Born in French Louisiana, Beauregard carried his French traditions and manners to West Point and through the Mexican War, in which he served with distinguished gallantry. He was a small, dark man, of French physique, justly proud of great muscular strength, compact, alert, thoroughly martial. For the most part, his face was grave and quiet, but in battle it lighted up with a splendid glory. During the war his hair grew suddenly gray. This was attributed by some to overwhelming anxiety, by others, ill-naturedly, to the scarcity of imported Parisian cosmetics.

Beauregard had too much real genius to ape any one. Yet being a Frenchman and a soldier, he could not but dream nightly and daily of Napoleon, and that overshadowing influence modeled, perhaps unconsciously, a good many of his habits and methods. Chivalrous and courteous in all things, he was a devoted admirer of women. He has French talents of speech, and even in the lavish military rhetoric which the war produced on both sides his stands out with proud preeminence. How he does luxuriate in large language to his soldiers: " Soldiers, untoward events saved the enemy from annihilation. His insolent presence still pollutes your soil, his hostile flag still flaunts before you. There can be no peace so long as these things are." What pleasure he must have taken in writing the celebrated " beauty and booty " proclamation ! " All rules of civilized warfare are abandoned, and they proclaim by their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is, 'Beauty and booty.'"

P.G.T. Beauregard was born in the parish of St. Bernard. 20 miles below New Orleans, La., May 23, 1818. He entered West Point in 1834, graduated four years later second in his class, and was appointed second lieutenant in the corps of engineers. After remaining at West Point a few months as instructor of engineering and artillery, with the rank of lieutenant of engineers, he was transferred to Newport, RI, as assistant to Col. Totten. In 1840 he was ordered to Now Orleans to take charge of the Louisiana fortifications. Beauregard served with great distinction in the Mexican War. At the siege of Vera Cruz he located three out of the five principal batteries which reduced that city. He was at the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco; he led the party which stormed the heights of Chapultepec, and was one of the first to enter the castle. He was three times complimented by Gen. Scott, and was brevetted captain for gallantry at Contreras, and major for valuable services and bravery at Chapultepec and at the Belen Gate in the attack upon the city of Mexico.

At the close of the Mexican War, Major Beauregard took command of the fortifications of Louisiana, including Forts St Philip and Jackson. He also superintended the building of the US custom-house, the marine hospital, and the repairs of all public buildings in New Orleans. In 1860, Beauregard was appointed superintendent at West Point, with the rank of colonel, but resigned when in January, 1861, Louisiana seceded from the Union.

He was then appointed brigadier-general in the Confederate army, and sent to Charleston to lay siege to Fort Sumter, the bombardment of which was commenced on April 12, 1861, and the fort surrendered April 14. A few weeks after this he was ordered to Richmond to organize the Confederate Army of the Potomac. After consulting with President Davis and Gen. Lee, a defensive campaign was decided upon, and the army of Beauregard was concentrated at Manassas Gap. After the battles of Bull Run and Manassas (July 18th and 20th) the Confederate Congress, in acknowledgment of his services, conferred on him the rank of general.

Early in January 1862, Gen. Beauregard was transferred to the department of the Mississippi, and on February 3d he went to Nashville to strengthen the defences of that city. On March 5th he assumed command of the Confederate forces in the Valley of the Mississippi, with his headquarters at Jackson. It was determined to attack the Federal army, then at Pittsburg Landing under Gen. Grant. On April 6th the Union forces were driven back to the shelter of their gun-boats. After the fall of Gen. A.S. Johnston the command of the Confederates devolved on Gen. Beauregard. The next day (April 7th), the Federal army having been reinforced by the arrival of Gen. Buell's command, the battle was renewed, and after six hours of hard fighting Beauregard withdrew his army to Corinth. Subsequently he was relieved of his command.

But when Charleston was threatened by a powerful land and water attack in the summer of 1862, Beauregard was assigned to the defence of that city. In April, 1864, he was called from Charleston to the defence of Petersburg, Va., and he attacked and defeated Gen. B.F. Butler at Drury's Bluff on May 16, 1864. In November, 1864, he was assigned to the military division of the South, and at end of the war he surrendered at Greensboro', NC, in April, 1865.

After the war Beauregard adopted a curious, ingenious, and not altogether happy method of self-laudation. He had his life written by Colonel Roman who could say things that not even his commander could say himself. The device is not, of course, new. Bull Run was a brilliant victory, no doubt, but others might have been left to mention it. The retreat from Corinth could not have been conducted better. So the retreater assures us, and he ought to know. He will make Charleston as famous for defense as Sarragossa. The defense, when made, is unsurpassed in the world's history, and it causes in the North discouragement as black as followed the triumph of the first Manassas.

Beauregard's perpetual, complacent vanity was accompanied by little if any sense of humor. No man who caught glimpses, even momentarily, of himself and his achievements under the aspect of eternity could ever have regarded his achievements or himself with such smug satisfaction. Stuart was vain, too; but more in the sense of a fullblooded self-consciousness. He liked to be heard, to be seen, to make the world ring with his mellow voice. But it was a laughing voice and as ready to mock at Stuart as at any one. Beauregard, as a member of his staff writes me,12 rarely jested with officers or soldiers. In one aspect Beauregard's vanity is harmless and amusing; but it had its more serious side in that it made him jealous, sensitive, suspicious, and so contributed a large chapter to the pitiful history of recrimination and fault-finding which makes the years after the war so depressing to read about.

He could not get along with Davis. Neither could many others. Estimating himself as highly as Beauregard did, it was natural that he should attribute any apparent slight or neglect on Davis's part to pique and jealousy. Possibly there may have been something of these feelings in the President's attitude. The treatment by Davis of his subordinate was based chiefly on lack of confidence in the subordinate's ability, and on a feeling that the work could be done quite as well by men who were more thoroughly in sympathy with the Government. At any rate, the relations between the two were unpleasant, with evident fault on both sides. Davis, as always where he disliked, made himself extremely disagreeable. If the general proposes a plan, it is disregarded. If he asks for more men, he is told that he should do more with what he has. If he retreats, he has done it too soon, or too late, or unskillfully. If he absents himself for a little time on account of illness, his departure is taken advantage of to put another in his place.

No doubt these things were trying. But they were partly brought about by Beauregard's own desire to be prominent and they were allowed to breed a counterspirit of animosity quite as discreditable as the president's. The subordinate said very harsh things of his superior. He speaks of the Government's policy in comparison with his own as "the passive defensive of an intellect timid of risk and not at home in war, and the active defensive reaching for success through enterprise and boldness."

He does not hesitate to say, through his biographer, that the president's neglect of the general's advice had fatal consequence: " The President of the Confederacy, by thus persisting in these three lamentable errors, lost the South her independence." 20 And one little phrase, addressed to the general by a favorite staff officer, is perhaps most significant of all: " As soon as you feel rested I hope you will report for duty and orders to the War Department. I hope that you will be able to do so soon, and thus force your archenemy to show his hand decisively at an early day if he dare do it." Arch-enemy ! It would have been better if Grant or Lincoln had been the arch enemy and not the head of the country all were trying to save.

If Beauregard's hurt vanity had set him at odds with Davis only, there would have been less to complain of. So many were at odds with Davis! But the circle included more than the president. To establish the record of what the general might have done, it was necessary to cast slurs upon Benjamin, - here not wholly undeserved, - upon Ewell, upon Bragg, upon A. S. Johnston, even upon Lee, who might easily have saved the Confederacy, if he would have done as Beauregard wished him to.

As regards purely military qualities Beauregard was in many ways interesting. He was a fighter, there can be no question of that; had martial instincts that were French, if nothing else was. As a mature soldier, he had perfect calmness and control in strain and exposure. Defeat could not alter him. He took his measures and gave his orders with promptness and lucidity. When the right moment came, he could rush to lead a charge and sweep every man along with him. As a commander, he always had a grip on his men and could make them do what he wanted. His discipline was founded on sympathy and a thorough understanding of a subordinate's position. He believed that, in a volunteer army, at any rate, more was to be obtained by encouragement and inspiration than by severity. Therefore he urged promotions, honors, and rewards, so far as lay in his power, and he employed a system of himself distributing badges of bravery which made a scene no doubt as grateful to the commander as to the commanded. Yet he could be absolutely unyielding, if circumstances required it. The truth is, the man was a genuine patriot, however his patriotism may have been mixed with earthly strain.