Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) was a native of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. He became superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in January, 1861, but resigned that position to accept that of the first Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. As such, he commanded the Confederate forces in Charleston and ordered the attack on Fort Sumter. He designed the Confederate battle flag in September, 1861, and led the Confederate forces at the First Battle of Manassas. As commander of the forces holding Charleston after 1862, he successfully prevented capture of that city by Federal forces until near the end of the war. After the Confederate surrender, he returned to Louisiana, became president of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Mississippi Railroad, and a well-known military historian of Civil War battles. This carte de viste photograph of Beauregard in uniform was taken early in the war.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
