Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

[8] to state; but he did not leave the service; and from 1853 to the latter part of 1861 remained in charge of what was then called ‘the Mississippi and Lake Defences in Louisiana.’ He was also at that time superintending the building of the United States custom-house at New Orleans.

On the 20th of November, 1860, he was appointed to the high position of Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, but, owing to complicated events then darkening more and more our political horizon, and of which it is not now our purpose to speak, he only filled the position during a few days. He resigned his commission in the army of the United States in February, 1861; and on the 1st of March of that year entered the Confederate service, with the rank of brigadier-general.

From that eventful period to the close of the war he was ever in the van—active, self-sacrificing, vigilant, and bold. He displayed great forethought in his extensive views. He was masterly in his manner of handling troops and of leading them on to victory on the battle-field; and his record of strategic ability and engineering skill has made him immortal in the annals of war. Had more of his farsighted suggestions been heeded, the cause for which he fought would not, perhaps, be known to-day under the mournful —though, to us, erroneous—appellation of ‘the Lost Cause.’

His defense of the city and harbor of Charleston—unquestionably the most scientific, complete, and perfect of all defences devised during the war—has been partially comprehended and appreciated among military engineers in Europe and at the North.

When we consider with what scant and utterly inadequate resources General Beauregard held, for nearly two years, over three hundred miles of most vulnerable coast, against formidable and always menacing land and naval forces; when we bear in mind the repulse from Charleston on April 7th, 1863, of Admiral Dupont's fleet of ironclads and monitors, supported by General Hunter's army; when we mark the prolonged resistance made by a handful of men, in the works on Morris Island, against the combined land and naval batteries of General Gillmore and Admiral Dahlgren; the assault and repulse of June 10th, 1863; the defeat of the former's forces in an attack on the lines of James Island, on July 16th, 1863; the masterly and really wonderful evacuation of Battery Wagner and Morris Island, after the enemy's approaches had reached the ditch of the former work; when we remember