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P. G. T. Beauregard (1815–1893)


During the secession crises of early 1861, Pierre G. T. Beauregard never entertained doubts about resigning from the U.S. Army should his native state of Louisiana leave the Union. Consequently, he served only five days in his new assignment as superintendent of West Point. Shortly thereafter he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate army. Assigned command of rebel forces in Charleston, South Carolina, Beauregard carried out the orders for the bombardment of Fort Sumter. That success earned him a field command of one of the two armies that would later form the redoubtable Army of Northern Virginia. Together with his senior officer, General Joseph E. Johnston, Beauregard would win the First Battle of Manassas. In doing so he defeated his fellow West Point classmate General Irvin McDowell.


Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823–1894)
Albumen silver print, 1862
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

 

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