Born in New Orleans on May 28, 1818, the Southern leader upon whom at
first all eyes were turned, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, was
graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1838. Gallant and dashing, he
won the brevets of Captain and Major in the war with Mexico and was
wounded at Chapultepec. Early in '61 he resigned from the army, and joined
the Confederacy, being in command of the Confederate forces in the firing
on Fort Sumter in April. Owing to his forceful personality, he became a
popular and noted leader in the Confederacy. After the Union defeat at
Manassas, he was looked upon as the coming Napoleon. He was confirmed as
Major-General in the Confederate army on July 30, 1861, but he had held
the provisional rank of Brigadier-General since February 20th, before a
shot was fired. After his promotion to Major-General, he commanded the
Army of the Mississippi under General A. S. Johnston, whom he succeeded at
Shiloh. He defended Charleston, S. C., in 1862-3 and afterward commanded
the Department of North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia. He died at New
Orleans in 1893.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST UNION VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.]
The First Minnesota, a regiment that fought in the flanking column at Bull
Run. On April 14, 1861, the day after Sumter's surrender, the Federal
Government received an offer of a volunteer regiment from Minnesota, and
on April 29, the First Minnesota was mustered into service by Lieutenant
W. W. Sanders, U. S. A. Under Colonel William O. Gorman the regiment
proceeded to Washington in June and, attached to Franklin's Brigade,
Heintzelman's Division of McDowell's Army, at Bull Run gave an excellent
account of itself, finally retiring from the field in good order. A record
for conspicuous bravery was sustained by the First Minnesota throughout
the war, notably its famous charge on the field of Gettysburg, July 2,
1863.
The photograph was taken just before the regiment left Fort Snelling in
1861. In the front line the first from the left is Lieut. Colonel Stephen
Miller, the next is Colonel Gorman. On his left hand is Major Dyke and
next to him is Adjutant W. B. Leach. Between the last two and behind them
is Captain William Colvill, while at the left hand of Adjutant Leach is
Captain Mark Downie. At the extreme right of the picture stands General J.
B. Sanborn with Lieutenant Sanders (mustering officer) on his right hand,
and on Sanders' right is the Honorable Morton S. Wilkinson. Colvill, as
Colonel, led the regiment in its Gettysburg charge.
[Illustration: MRS. GREENHOW, THE CONFEDERATE SPY, WITH HER DAUGHTER, IN
THE OLD CAPITOL PRISON