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P. G. T. Beauregard and the Petersburg Campaign A. Wilson Greene September 7, 1864, dawned cloudy and cool along the trenches ringing Petersburg and Richmond. Except for the usual picket firing and occasional exchange of artillery, the opposing armies remained quiet in their elaborate fortifications, welcoming the respite from a campaign that had already witnessed four bloody Union offensives. In the Confederate capital, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard paid little heed to events along the earthworks that day. “I leave tomorrow for Wilmington,” he wrote his adjutant general, Brigadier General Thomas Jordan. “I am here performing the play of Hamlet with that character left out ‘by special request.’ Wishing you success in your Herculean task of endeavoring to take an actual role in the present struggle for the life and death of our country, I remain yours truly.” 1 This sarcastic note, penned by the second highest ranking Confederate general in the Virginia Theater, reflected its author’s frustration with his subordinate role at Petersburg. Once considered the preeminent military hero in the Confederacy and recently the independent commander of a military department responsible for hundreds of square miles of territory in North Carolina and Virginia, by the late summer of 1864 Beauregard found himself under the respectful but firm control of General Robert E. Lee, his ability to dictate operations and exercise discretionary authority all but evaporated. Beauregard’s mercurial Civil War career had ebbed once more, as it had so often since the spring of 1861. Beauregard’s near irrelevance now stood in stark contrast to his earlywar profile. Born on May 28, 1818, to a Creole family below New Orleans, A. Wilson Greene 154 Beauregard entered West Point at the age of sixteen, graduating second in the class of 1838. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, skillfully superintended the construction of defenses around New Orleans in the 1850s, and rose to command of the United States Military Academy in January 1861, a post he held for less than a week when his pro-secession sentiments led to his dismissal. Beauregard returned to Louisiana, expecting to be named commander of state forces, only to learn that Braxton Bragg had received the post. His pride wounded, Beauregard declined a lesser position and volunteered to serve as a private soldier. Soon, however, the influence of his brother-in-law, former Senator John Slidell, landed him a commission as brigadier general in the Confederate army and a posting at Charleston, South Carolina. Beauregard presided over the surrender of Fort Sumter in April and then moved to Manassas Junction, Virginia, in command of the gathering army confronting the Federals moving south from Washington. The Confederate victory at Manassas on July 21 cemented his stature as the most famous and revered military figure in the South. The Confederate Congress rewarded Beauregard with one of only five full-general commissions in national service, but soon his pen undid much of what his sword had accomplished. Beauregard publicly criticized the Davis administration for failing to exploit his victory at Manassas, a course of action the Creole naïvely predicted could have resulted in the capture of Washington . The president, although outwardly tolerant of Beauregard’s indiscretion, grew resentful of his outspoken general, feelings exacerbated by rumors that Davis’s political enemies intended to run Beauregard for president. Eventually Davis rid himself of the troublesome officer by sending him to the Western Theater, where he served as second in command to General Albert Sidney Johnston. When Johnston received a mortal wound on April 6, 1862, at the Battle of Shiloh, Beauregard assumed army command. He failed to deliver the knockout blow that many at the time thought possible and, in fact, would order his forces back to Corinth, Mississippi, the following day. When he evacuated Corinth in late May and moved south to safety at Tupelo, actions viewed as further evidence of Beauregard’s leadership deficiencies, the Louisianan took an unauthorized leave of absence to restore his chronically shaky health. By this time Beauregard’s military star had begun to descend, and the administration held him responsible for the reversal of fortunes that had marked the army’s course since Sidney Johnston’s death. His failure to ask for permission to leave the army provided the excuse Davis needed to relieve Beauregard and name the president’s friend, Braxton Bragg, as his replacement . Nevertheless, Beauregard continued to enjoy public popularity, and this, combined with his high rank, compelled Davis to find him a new...

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