Few Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as
Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. P. G. T. combined brilliance and
charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a
society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic
next to the likes of Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee.
He was reviled by Jefferson Davis and often mocked by Mary Chesnut in
her diary. Yet, he was popular with his soldiers and subordinates.
Outside of Lee, he was the South's most consistently successful
commander, winning at Bull Run, defending Charleston in 1863, and
defeating Benjamin Butler at Bermuda Hundred and Ulysses Grant and
George Meade at Petersburg. Yet, he lived his life in the shadow of his
one major defeat: Shiloh.
Beauregard's career before and after the war was no less tumultuous than
his Civil War record. He was born among the Creole elite of Louisiana,
but rejected the life of a planter in favor of the military, inspired by
tales of Napoléon. He was considered a shining light of the antebellum
army and performed superbly in the Mexican-American War. Yet, he
complained about a lack of promotion and made a frustrating stab at
being mayor of New Orleans in 1858.
After the war, he was a successful railroad executive and took a stand
against racism, violence, and corruption during the Reconstruction. Yet,
he was ousted from both railroads he oversaw and his foray into
Reconstruction politics came to naught. Although he provided for his
family and left them a hefty sum after his death, the money was mostly
gained by working for the corrupt Louisiana Lottery.
In Dreams of Victory: General P. G. T. Beauregard in the Civil War,
Sean Michael Chick explores a life of contradictions and dreams
unrealized--the first real hero of the Confederacy who sometimes proved
to be his own worst enemy.
