Beauregard and Lee

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Beauregard and Lee

Robert E. Lee, a Virginian, graduated second in the West Point class of 1829.  

Pierre Gustave Toutant "Gus" Beauregard, a Louisianan who as an adult did not use his first name but styled himself "G. T. Beauregard," graduated second in the West Point class of 1838.  

Both served in the United States Army as engineers.  Both served with distinction in the Mexican War.  

Lee distinguished himself as one of the chief aides to his fellow Virginian, Major General Winfield Scott, during the march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City.  Lee's personal reconnaissances contributed to American victories by finding routes of attack undefended by the Mexicans because the terrain appeared impassable.  He fought at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, and Chapultepec, where he was wounded.  He was breveted major, lieutenant colonel and colonel.

Map of August 18, 1864, by Hampton Newsome, from John Horn, The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2015)

Beauregard served as an engineer on Scott's staff.  He fought at Contreras, Cherubusco and Chapultepec, where he was wounded in two places.  He too carried out reconnaissances.  He also persuaded his superiors to attack the fortress of Chapultepec differently than they had planned.  He was breveted captain and major.

Gus felt slighted, but not with respect to Lee.  Beauregard considered his contributions to victory more significant than those of other officers who received more brevets than he, but not more significant than Lee's contributions.

Both Lee and Beauregard were appointed Superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.  

Lee served from 1852 until 1855, when he became lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Texas.

Around that time Beauregard exhibited dubious judgment in considering a post filibustering in Nicaragua with William Walker, who had taken control of that country.  Fortunately for Gus, Scott talked him out of the enterprise.  Walker was soon forced to resign the presidency of Nicaragua.

Beauregard was appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy on January 23, 1861.  He relinquished the office after five days because the Federal government revoked his orders as soon as Louisiana seceded.

Both Beauregard and Lee numbered among the Confederacy's five first full generals.  Beauregard ranked fifth, Lee third.

Shortly before First Manassas, Lee participated in the rejection of a complicated, highly optimistic plan of the sort that became typical of Beauregard.

Gus met with success first.  He participated in the victory at First Manassas on July 21, 1861.  Lee met with defeat in a campaign in western Virginia.

Map of August 19, 1864, by Hampton Newsome, from John Horn, The Siege of Petersburg; The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 (Savas Beatue, 2015)

Beauregard exhibited a quarrelsome nature.  He contended with the Commissary General, the Secretary of War and finally President Davis.  A political liability, he was packed off to serve as second-in-command to General Albert Sidney Johnston.

Beauregard subsequently rose to command the Army of Tennessee after the death of Johnston at the battle of Shiloh.  Lee soon afterward was appointed to command what became the Army of Northern Virginia after the wounding of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston.  

Lee's star was on the rise, Beauregard's on the wane.  Gus was relieved of command of the Army of Tennessee when he clumsily took sick leave after the fall of Corinth, Mississippi.  Davis packed him off to Charleston, South Carolina.

After Chancellorsville, Lee urged Davis to bring Beauregard and most of his troops up to Virginia from the south Atlantic coast.  While Lee raided Pennsylvania, Beauregard would menace Washington, D.C. and lighten the pressure on Lee.  Gus, who had already dispatched 5,000 men to the attempted relief of Vicksburg, thought the departure of more would invite an enemy attack.

In the last month of 1863, Lee recommended that Davis appoint Beauregard commander of the Army of Tennessee.  Beauregard, among many others, suggested Johnston.  Davis, who seems to have really wanted Lee for the post, appointed Johnston. 

The first real friction between Beauregard and Lee developed in May and June 1864.  The two vied for troops and the Davis administration usually backed Lee.  Grant's crossing of the James intensified the friction between the two Confederate generals.  Some hard feelings developed between the two.

When Johnston was removed from the command of the Army of Tennessee in July 1864, Beauregard hoped to replace him.  Lee did not recommend Beauregard to Davis as a possible replacement for Johnston.  This does not appear to have arisen from the hard feelings between Gus and Lee, but from the urgency of replacing Johnston; Sherman was at the gates of Atlanta by the time Davis sacked Old Joe.  By that time, the replacement had to come from within the Army of Tennessee.  In any event, Davis would never have appointed Beauregard commander of the Army of Tennessee at this point because the president appears to have been dissatisfied with Beaurgard's performance in May and June if sniping at the Louisianian by Davis' military advisor Gen. Braxton Bragg was any indication.  Bragg complained about Beauregard's abandonment of the Howlett Line opposite Bermuda Hundred in order to concentrate on the defense of Petersburg.

Beauregard did not serve Lee at Petersburg as Gus had served Joe Johnston at First Manassas and Albert Sydney Johnston at Shiloh.  Beauregard had done the planning and fighting at those two battles.  At Petersburg, Gus commanded when Lee was north of the James but reverted to command of his own troops, essentially a corps, in Lee's presence.  Lee, who had written off the Weldon Railroad as indefensible upon arriving in Petersburg in June, refused to join the Davis administration in nit-picking Beauregard for the loss of the railway in August.  Gus actually performed better than Lee in the August fighting around Petersburg, counterattacking with what he had before the Federals could dig in (August 18 and 19) rather than waiting like Lee for set piece engagements while the enemy entrenched (August 21).  Beauregard blamed the Davis administration rather than Lee for not giving Gus command of the Confederate forces gathering around Early's Corps in the lower Shenandoah Valley.

Map of August 21, 1864, by Hampton Newsome, from John Horn, The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2015)

In September Lee encouraged Beauregard to leave Petersburg and take command at Wilmington, North Carolina or Charleston.  In the aftermath of Atlanta's fall, Gus hoped for command of the Army of Tennessee but was given an empty command overseeing that army.  

By February 1865, Lee had become general-in-chief of the Confederate States Army.  Unable to understand how Sherman could advance without orthodox supply lines, Lee became dissatisfied with Beauregard's inability to stop Sherman's advance northward from Savannah.  The general-in-chief removed Beaurgard and replaced him with Johnston, who brought Sherman to battle at Bentonville in March but did not stop his progress north.

After the war Beauregard praised Lee for "great nerve, coolness, & determination--the greater the danger the greater was his presence of mind" and his noble & high toned character."  Gus also criticised Lee, writing that Lee did not have "much Mil[i]t[ar]y foresight or pre-science or great powers of deduction," that he was "not very fertile in resources or expedients," that he was "perhaps a little too cautious in civil as well as Mil[i]t[ar]y matters," and that he was incapable "of much generous friendship."

Lee, probably wisely, took his opinion of Beauregard to the grave except to the extent that it can be inferred from Lee's actions.

The first person to comment on this blog post at my new blog address (johnhorncivilwarauthor.blogspot.com) is entitled to a free copy of my book, The Siege of Petersburg:  The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2015).