P. G. T. Beauregard telegram to Howell Cobb


Descriptive Summary
Title: P. G. T. Beauregard telegram to Howell Cobb
Creator: Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant), 1818-1893
Inclusive Dates: 1865 January 2
Language(s): English
Extent: 1 folder(s) 1 telegram
Collection Number: ms1035
Repository: Hargrett Library

Collection Description

Historical Note

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born May 28, 1818 near New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. Beauregard graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (1838) and served in the Mexican War (1846-1848). After the secession of Louisiana from the Union (January 1861), Beauregard resigned from the U.S. Army and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army; he eventually became one of the eight full generals of the Confederacy and particpated in almost every important theatre of the war. He commanded the forces that bombarded Fort Sumter, S.C., was on the field at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861), and assumed command at Shiloh after the death of General Albert Sidney Johnston (1862). He later conducted the defense of Charleston and toward the end of the war defended the southern approaches to Richmond. Though he proved to be a capable combat commander and often displayed sound strategic sense, Beauregard revealed serious deficiencies as a general officer. His penchant for questioning orders bordered on insubordination. He died on February 20, 1893 in New Orleans. Britannica Online Encyclopedia http://search.eb.com (Retrieved November 18, 2008)

Howell Cobb was born September 7, 1815 in Jefferson County, Georgia. He was a Georgia politician who championed Southern unionism during the 1850s but then advocated immediate secession following the election of Abraham Lincoln. Cobb served in Congress from 1842 to 1851 and agina from 1855 to 1857; he supported the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the extension of slavery into the territories. But he broke with the most extreme proslavery Southerners when he advocated extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, opposed the creation of a sectional political party, and supported the Compromise of 1850. He died in New York City on October 9, 1868. Britannica Online Encyclopedia http://search.eb.com (Retrieved November 18, 2008)

For more information, see the article Howell Cobb (1815-1868) in the New Georgia Encyclopedia and his congressional biography.

Scope and Content

A telegram sent to General Howell Cobb from General P. G. T. Beauregard at Charleston, South Carolina, which informs Cobb that Beauregard was leaving the city that day at eleven o'clock. A copy accompanies the original.