Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

We continue to explore the greatest generals who ever lived this week on OPOD. Today, we feature P.G.T. Beauregard. Beauregard was an author, engineer, inventor, and masterful general. As tensions rose in 1861 between North and South, Beauregard was in command of the area around Charleston surrounding Ft. Sumter. The south was adamant that Sumter should not be resupplied by Union Ships. As it became apparent that the North intended to both supply and hold Ft. Sumter, Beauregard's men completely surrounded Ft. Sumter and Charleston Harbor. Always the gentleman though, he would send regular supplies of Brandy and Cigars to Union Major Anderson, who was in command of the fort. Anderson had known Beauregard at West Point, and wrote Lincoln that Beauregard was in command of Southern men, and that he could be assured that Beauregard would attack with "skill and sound judgment". That he did, and on April 12, 1861, Beauregard gave the order to attack Sumter. And the War Came.