P. G. T. Beauregard

P. G. T. Beauregard
Portrait by Mathew Brady, c. 1860–1865
Birth name	Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard
Nickname(s)	Little Black Frenchman[1] Little Frenchman Little Napoleon Little Creole Bory Felix Hero of Fort Sumter
Born	(1818-05-28)May 28, 1818 St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	February 20, 1893(1893-02-20) (aged 74) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Buried	Tomb of the Army of Tennessee, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Allegiance	United States Confederate States
Service / branch	United States Army Confederate Army
Years of service	1838–1861 (U.S.) 1861–1865 (C.S.)
Rank	Brevet major (U.S.) General (C.S.)
Commands	Army of the Potomac Army of Mississippi
Battles / wars	Mexican–American War Battle of Contreras Battle of Churubusco Battle for Mexico City Battle of Chapultepec American Civil War Battle of Fort Sumter First Battle of Bull Run Battle of Shiloh Siege of Corinth First Battle of Charleston Harbor First Battle of Fort Wagner Second Battle of Fort Wagner Second Battle of Charleston Harbor Second Battle of Fort Sumter Bermuda Hundred Campaign Second Battle of Petersburg Battle of Bentonville
Alma mater	United States Military Academy (BS)
Spouse(s)	Marie Antoinette Laure Villeré (m. 1841–1850; her death) Caroline Deslonde (m. 1860–1864; her death)
Children	3
Signature

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893) was an American military officer known as being the Confederate General who started the American Civil War at the battle of 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.

Trained in military and civil engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, Beauregard served with distinction as an engineer officer in the Mexican–American War. Following a brief appointment as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy in 1861, and after Louisiana seceded, he resigned from the United States Army and became the first brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He commanded the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Three months later he helped win the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.

Beauregard held several key commands in the Western Theater, including control of armies at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, and the Siege of Corinth in northern Mississippi, both in 1862. He returned to Charleston and defended it in 1863 from repeated naval and land attacks by Union forces. He is most known for his defense of the industrial city of Petersburg, Virginia, from Union troops in June 1864, which delayed the eventual fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in April 1865.

His influence over Confederate strategy was lessened by his poor professional relationships with President Jefferson Davis and other senior generals and officials. In April 1865, Beauregard and his commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, convinced Davis and the remaining cabinet members that the war needed to end. Johnston surrendered most of the remaining armies of the Confederacy, including Beauregard and his men, to Major General William Tecumseh Sherman.

After his military career, Beauregard returned to Louisiana, where he advocated black civil rights including suffrage, served as a railroad executive, and became wealthy as a promoter of the Louisiana Lottery.