Military officer; born on a plantation near New Orlenas, May 28, 1818; was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1838, and entered the artiliery service, but was transferred to the engineer corps.
He won the brevets of captain
and major in the war with
Mexico, and was wounded at Chapultepee; also at the taking of the city of
Mexico.
He left the service of the
United States in 1861, and joined the
Confederates in February.
He conducted the siege of
Fort Sumter, and was afterwards active as a leader in
Virginia and other parts of the slave-labor States.
Beauregard was made brigadier-general in the Confederate army. Feb. 20, 1861, and was placed in command of the gathering army of Confederates at
Manassas Junction — the Department of Alexandria.
He took the command at the beginning of June, 1861, and issued a proclamation which was calculated and intended to “fire the
Southern heart.”
He said: “A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil.
Abraham Lincoln, regardless of all moral, legal, and constitutional restraints, has thrown his abolition hosts among us, who are murdering and imprisoning your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts of violence and outrage too shocking and revolting to humanity to be enumerated.
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.’
All that is dear to man — your honor, and that of your wives and daughters, your fortunes, and your lives — are involved in this monstrous contest.”
He then, as “
General of the
Confederate States, commanding at Camp Pickens,
Manassas Junction,” invited the people of
Virginia to a vindication of their patriotism, “by the name and memory of their Revolutionary fathers, and by the purity and sanctity of their domestic firesides, to rally to the standard of their State and country,” and by every means in their power “compatible with honorable warfare, to drive back and expel the invaders from the land.”
The speech of
President Davis at
Richmond and this proclamation of
Beauregard were lauded by the
Confederates at
Washington and
Baltimore as having the ring of true metal.
After the battle of
Bull Run (q. v.), in July, he was promoted to major-general.
He took command of the Army of the Mississippi, under
Gen. A. S. Johnston, and directed the
battle of Shiloh in April, 1862, after the death of
Johnston.
He successfully defended
Charleston in 1862-63, and in May, 1864, he joined
Lee in the defence of
Petersburg and
Richmond.
As commander of the forces in the Carolinas in 1865, he joined them with those of
Gen. J. E. Johnston, and surrendered them to
Sherman.
At the close of the war, with the full rank of general in the
Confederate service, he settled in New Orleans, where he died, Feb. 20, 1893.
