General Pierre G.T. Beauregard Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) was Commander of the Confederacy's Military Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (1862-1864) and was defending Charleston from attacks by the Union Army and Navy. Beauregard, who had shortened his name to G.T. Beauregard while a student at West Point, had been named a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army on March 1, 1861 and just a month later, on April 12, 1861, gave the order for Confederate troops to fire on Ft. Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the American Civil War. In addition to the capture of Ft. Sumter, Beauregard distinguished himself in battle at Manassas (July 1861) and Shilo (April 1862) and would later defeat Union General B.F. Butler at Drewry's Bluff and hold Petersburg (1864) against U.S. Grant until the arrival of Robert E. Lee. Beauregard, who later commanded southern forces against William T. Sherman in Georgia and South Carolina (1864-1865) and co-commanded forces against Sherman in North Carolina in 1865, surrendered at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, 1865 - more than seventeen months after writing this letter in which he hopes for a quick end to the war.