Pierre Beauregard and Romania

According to a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.G.T._Beauregard), Pierre Beauregard, a Confederate general in the American Civil War, declined an offer to command the Romanian Army in 1866. Does anybody know more about that?

This post has been edited by dragos03 on January 01, 2006 04:06 pm

Hello! I can tell you that information is definitely true. If you want details, Magzin Istoric published an article about this in '94 or '95. I don't remember very much about it, just that he was contacted inbetween the abdication of Cuza and the election of Carol, because there was a threat of Turkish invasion.

It would be interesting to know also where Pierre Beauregard come from, I know he was a Confederate General in the American Civil War but a biography about him would be interesting because I am pretty sure he had some French Canadian blood with a name like that.

Regards

Or from Luisiana.
Or from Britain,a descendent of a Hugenot family who run for her life.....

He was actually from a wealthy Creole family from Louisiana, and was born on a plantation outside New Orleans. (French names are quite common there, BTW) He was 2d in his class at the US Military Academy at West Point (1838) and distinguished himself in the war with Mexico.

After the Civil War, he held some surprisingly liberal views for a former Confederate general, and spoke in favor of voting rights for freed slaves.

The Wikipedia article is quite good, even though I knew he was a general, and I used to live one block off Beauregard Street, I didn't know that much about him.

This post has been edited by Jeff_S on January 05, 2006 08:55 pm

Jeff,

I appreciate the short biography concerning Beauregard. I know that French names are quite common in the state of Louisiana in Bayou country!

Regards

I wonder what would happen if Beauregard accepted the offer. From the Wikipedia article it seems he was a good, agressive general.

Nothing, because there was no war with the Turks in 1866.

Beauregard was the general that started the American Civil War through his agressive actions (the attack on Fort Sumter). A similar behaviour in 1866 would have led to an early war with the Turks.

dragos,


lets see, a Union fort in Confederate waters! think it was safe to assume that after being ordered to leave the fort, Major Anderson should have expected to be bombarded; being in charge of defenses doesn't make you the one to start a war; orders were handed down and followed

link to bio
Beauregard Bio



This post has been edited by RHaught on January 09, 2006 12:41 am

"Little Napoleon"? How short was he?

Gen. Dénes

A studio photo of Beauregard, currently on auction on eBay.
The text also mentions that he turned down offers of commands from the Rumanian and Egyptian armies.

Gen. Dénes

I have a good opinion of him too, but the Confederacy had no shortage of good generals. And while aggressiveness is good, the ability to fight well defensively was essential for them. They weren't on the strategic offensive that often.

I wondered about that too... does it mean "little like Napoleon"? Or (yikes!) "little compared to Napoleon"?

I always thought of "General Tom Thumb" as just being advertising, not a real general.

[QUOTE]great admirer of Napoleon



I would think it was meant to tease him by peers, saying he was such a big fan he was the minature version, experience wise, etc.

Here is the photo again as the old auction image expired