Show A lost soldier of a lost 0 S t cause C ause 76 A 4 I 1 A Z its 4 it beau a rids ers in C t y the great creole AU pictures from jasnos the great creole 11 courtesy conr tty charles scrib scribners sons by ELMO SCOTT WATSON E ORDERED the firing on fort sum eff ter and thus furnished the spark which set off the mighty jl fl j tion of the greatest civil war in history but this kindliest kind liest military engagement in history conducted with the utmost good nature almost r ten tenderness derne s on both sides a pleasant curtain raiser which gave gaie no hint of the grimness to follow was balled as a treat victory and he became the idol of a new nation cation the confederate states of america the confederate congress in behalf of the sew new nation voted him a resolution of thanks the general assembly of south carolina the scene of his great ilc victory tory did the same citi sens of his native dative new orleans raised funds to buy a golden sword for him his admirers in montgomery ala the confederate capital decided to buy him a new horse and present it to him upon his next visit there ne ile received more than letters of congratulation and the manuscripts of five poems written to him then he be was ordered to richmond to confer with president jefferson davis and his progress north was a triumphal procession with cheering crowds and blaring bands at every railroad junction wherever he appeared the crowds demanded a speech arriving in richmond he was bustled and shoved and kissed and had to stand with a scarlet embarrassed face while a spindly maiden of forty to whom forty made no difference snipped a button from his coat three months later two uniformed mobs fought a battle near manassas or bull run ran in virginia the uniformed mob which had bad marched south many of them carrying lengths of rope to lead a rebel prisoner back to washington went back toward that city in a panic stricken rout almost unparalleled in history the uniformed mob which had marched north each man confident of his ability to whip five yankees before breakfast experienced unexpected difficulties in whipping two but theirs was the victory anyway and after that another extravaganza of hero worship in the south they began naming children after him there was talk of making him president of the confederates states of america ile he had to keep an extra supply of coat buttons in his tent they snipped them off so fast As you have probably already guessed the object of all this frenzy was pierre gustave toutant beauregard a general in the confederate army in 1801 1861 buts but you say it if he was such a great hero then why do we hear bear so BO little of him now to find the answer to that question turn to a new biography which has just been published by charles scribners sons it Is beauregard regard the great creole written by hamilton basso who has baa set about the task of rescuing from ob cuilty security the man once hailed balled as one of the greatest frea test military figures in history in the prologue to his biography mr basso says ays occasionally in the textbooks text books we came across his hl name but it Is only rarely and then with a scant line or two they are done with him ile he has fallen into obscurity even in the south where once he was loved and honored as much as ag lee and so in writing of him it has interested me to seek an explanation of his neglect and effacement the fault I 1 bell believe eve and the blame if there Is any blame Is that of the traditionalists and the myth makers all the happy Gala hads of the picturesque mr basso then points out that in 1865 when the civil war ended a mined it a defeated people returned to the dally daily routine of peacetime peace time life a changed life in which they had no present and so far as they could see no future all that was left inviolate was the past and the prostrate south clung desperately to its memories of the beauty the chivalry and the romance that had been in the past in the years that followed myths and legends be began 9 an to spring up to form the parts of the plantation or southern tradition and a part of that tradition was wag that of the civil war gentral here fortunately the myth makers were vot cot called upon to exercise their creative ingenuity to any great extent their hero was wag already made ills his name was robert edward lee lee then became the legendary hero he was the model the others must measure up to A few southern generals notably stonewall jackson albert sidney johnston and jeb stuart bore many points point of resemblance to lee the ile tradition therefore could incorporate them into its dogma but beauregard could not be to so included tor for one thing he and lee were totally unlike in every respect then too beauregard was wag a frenchman and the tradition Is essentially an glo saxon add to this the bitter antagonism that sprang up between president jefferson fergon Jef f 1 I 1 laure villere beauregard davis and beauregard early in the war store more than one historian has pointed out how davis suffered from the delusion that he was a great military m strategist and he would brook no interference ter with his strategy of waging a defensive war and trying to defend every part of the far flung empire of the south in contrast to this attitude was Beau regards desire for a concentration of the confederate forces in the vitally important places and the waging of a smashing offensive war which would decide the issue as quickly as possible one of the most interesting its of the civil war ar Is what might have happened it if this creole reared in the napoleonic tradition had been given a free hand from the outset there Is no doubt that he had in him the makings of a great soldier but he seems always to have just missed success whether because of his own shortcomings or because of circumstances over which he had no control it is difficult to say beauregard was born on a plantation in loul louisiana just years ago may 28 1818 when that state stat ewas was still more french than american from the first he had a passion tor for guns tor for horses for everything military so when he was sent to school in new york conducted by the brothers two ex captains of napoleon and listened to their tales of the great campaigns in which they had fought under the little corporal this passion was only intensified the natural result was an appointment to the united states military academy at west point in 1834 one of his instructors there was a kentuckian Kentuck lan named robert anderson andersen A little over a quarter of a century later the former student was to order his soldiers to open fire on the fort defended by the former instructor but he was not present when the fort was surrendered it would be an thing he declared to be present at the humiliation of his friend in 1838 beauregard was graduated from west point second in a class of 45 one of his classmates was named irvin mcdowell and 23 years later irvin mcdowell and pierre gustave toutant beauregard were to be commanders of the opposing forces when bull run creek in virginia received its bloody baptism after graduation beauregard a lieutenant in the engineers corps first helped in the construction of fort adams in rhode island then he was sent to take charge of an engineering project at barataria Bara Bar tarla ataria bay so he came back to his own creole country there he met and fell in love with the lovely laure villere and when they were married two of the most distin distinguished gushed families in louisiana were united then came the mexican war and during that conflict he was twice brevet ted for gallant and meritorious service first as a captain tor for his gallantry at contreras and churubusco and again as a major for bravery in the battle of he returned to new orleans as it a local hero and was presented a golden sword but the years which followed were dull and uneventful ones and beauregard was rapidly slipping into obscurity then by pulling certain wires he succeeded in getting himself appointed as commandant at west point this was as two days after Lincol ns election in 1860 and when it seemed certain that louisiana would secede from the union on his way to new york beauregard stopped off in washington to explain to his superior officers that should louisiana withdraw from the union he must follow his bis state the result was that he was vas superintendent at west point for only live five days when he was ordered back to louisiana thus establishing a record for briefness in the time which any officer held that post louisiana seceded and beauregard the engineer who had prepared and presen presented teda a comprehensive program for the defense of the mississippi sis mis sippi river passage was called to MoAt montgomery gomery for a special meeting with provisional president jefferson davia ha kissed his wife goodby good by ib 4 V POO ae a u re 9 a rd after shiloh and said he would be gone a fortnight ile he was gone four years during those four years he rose to the height of his military ambition and sank to the depths within a short time after manassas llanas sas he was definitely in bad with davis and the secretary of war benjamin ile he was sent to the department of the west as second in command to albert sidney johnston at the battle of shiloh or pittsburg landing a bullet struck down johnston and the command devolved upon beauregard but with certain victory in sight when he could have annihilated grants army lie he ordered the fighting stopped he retreated to corinth leaving grant in possession after shiloh the whisperings against beauregard began there began to be doubts as to the greatness of the hero of sumter and the victor of manassas but he did score a victory of sorts in his skillful eva evacuation cution of corinth when halleck might have crushed him despite this fact he was relieved of his command and succeeded by gen braxton bragg one of davis pets the illness which had troubled him since the beginning of the war made a long leave of absence necessary and after he had somewhat regained his health he was placed in command at charleston again there he successfully resisted a federal attack aimed at this breeding place of secession in 1864 he was serving under lee in resisting the sledge hammer strokes of grant around richmond at petersburg he beat oft off an attack which saved Itle richmond timond for nine more months A year later after lee had surrendered there was a dramatic meeting between davis and beauregard davis dails was pleading tor for a continuance of the war but beauregard and gen joseph johnston told him plainly that it was no use to struggle longer against the inevitable so johnston linston Jo surrendered to sherman and the war was over with only in his pocket beauregard started back to louisiana in new orleans lie he found himself still a hero to his people but in the years that followed the hero worship even in louisiana faded there was the matter of the louisiana lottery the gambling bling scheme which was so go bitterly assailed as a menace to the morals and character of the nation its directors needed the association 0 of f some man whose greatness of name would lend character and dignity to the lottery and certify to the fairness of the drawings finally they got such names two of them one was gen jubal A early and the other was gen pierre gustave toutant beauregard Beau the south was astonished a little shocked and made apologies for her distinguished sons but though it apologized for him and tried to forget his association with the octopus it never really forgave him it was not the thing for a civil war ajr general to do came the the civil war was as becoming a dim memory most brost of the great figures in it were dead only a few lingered on among them the great creole in his seventy fifth year the old illness assailed him lie ile felt as it if knives ives were sticking in his throat he could feel the pulse of fever behind his eyes sometimes sometime es in the evening his officers would come to his quarters to cheer him up the fire leaped and roared and those who liked whisky had bad a nip or two and stuart san sang in his great booming voice perhaps as he went up the stairs the echo of stuarts song went softly into his darkened room perhaps the dark was poignant with the ghosts of men in weathered gray and perhaps as he fell asleep there was the past again and the days of golden glory when hla his name came was vas a banner in the southern sun or perhaps there was nothing only quiet and the ceasing of his heart and the peaceful c coming of the end 0 by union |