Beauregard, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT

Beauregard, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT, Confederate general, was born in 1818, near New Orleans, graduated at West Point in 1838, served with distinction in the Mexican War, and after its close superintended the engineering works on the Lower Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. He joined the secession with his native state, and was appointed by the Confederate government to the command at Charleston, S.C., where, April 12, 1861, he commenced the war by the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He was virtually in command at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; and sent to the west in the spring of 1862 as second to General A. S. Johnston, he succeeded to the command when the latter was killed in the first day's battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing. Defeated on the second day's fighting, he retreated to Corinth, Miss., where he reorganised his division; but on the approach of the Union troops he evacuated the place, and was superseded by General Bragg. After a period of inactivity he was placed (1864) in command of the military division of the west, but failed to check Sherman's march to the sea. After the war, he was president of a railway, and manager of the Louisiana State Lottery. He died 21st February 1893.