Battles & Leaders of the Civil War: General P.G.T. Beauregard’s Account of the Battle of First Manassas

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was a Louisiana-born American military officer, politician, inventor, writer, civil servant, and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Today he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult and signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.

Beauregard was trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy and served with distinction as an engineer in the Mexican-American War. Following a brief appointment at West Point in 1861, with the South's secession, he became the first Confederate brigadier general. He commanded the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, and he became quickly famous throughout the South for commanding the successful attack on Fort Sumter from April 12-13, 1861, beginning the Civil War. Beauregard was also the victor at the Battle of First Manassas, the war’s first major battle.

Beauregard would serve the Confederacy throughout the war, mostly in the Western theater at battles like Shiloh. His forces also saved Petersburg in June 1864 by defending against assaults by overwhelmingly superior Union Army until Lee’s army could arrive. 

After the war, Beauregard wrote an account of the Battle of First Manassas which became part of the well known Battles & Leaders of the Civil War Series, discussing the strategy and tactics of the first major battle of the war, an important Confederate victory. This edition is specially formatted with images of Beauregard.