This text is part of:
[4]
of whom, Louis Emmanuel, Chevalier de Reggio, married Miss Louise Judith Olivier de Vezin.
The mother of General Beauregard—Helene Judith de Reggio—was the issue of this last marriage.
When scarcely more than eight years of age, young Beauregard was sent to a primary school kept by Mr. V. Debouchel, near New Orleans, where could then be found many of the sons of the best families of Louisiana.
Being of studious habits, modest in his demeanor, ever fair in his dealings with comrades as well as with teachers, he soon became very popular with both, and always merited and obtained the highest marks of approbation.
He was of a retiring disposition, but, withal, of great firmness and decision of character.
His dominant trait, even at that early age, was a passion for all that pertained to the military life—a forecast of his future career.
The sight of a passing soldier, the beating of a drum, would so excite and carry him away, that for the pleasure of following either or both he would forget everything —parental admonitions, boyish playmates, and even hunger; and many a long day was thus spent, to the great anxiety of all at home.
Several curious anecdotes of his childhood, illustrative of his independent daring, are preserved in his family, and are well worth recording.
We mention two of them.
When a little boy about nine years old, he was spending a day at the house of one of his aunts, in the neighborhood of his father's estate, where had assembled several relatives and many comrades of his own age. Among the gentlemen present was one noted for his raillery and love of teasing.
On that occasion he had taken young Beauregard to task, and was attempting to make a target of him for the amusement of the others.
While this gentleman was in the full enjoyment of his practical jokes, young Beauregard, his patience being thoroughly exhausted, suddenly seized a stick that lay near at hand, and so violently and rapidly assaulted his tormentor, that he forced him in self-defence to make an inglorious retreat to an outhouse close by. His little enemy at once mounted guard over the building, refusing to release his prisoner until the latter had fully apologized to him.
The other incident is still more peculiar, and relates to Beauregard's uncommon—perhaps uncontrollable—taste for military things.
1883. Harper. New York.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.