Banks Nathaniel P Nathaniel Banks 1816 1894 was one of President Abraham Lincoln’s political appointees to the rank of general He had no military experience and his lack of skill proved costly for the Union Banks led his troops to a series of defeats Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was born in Waltham Massachusetts on January 30 1816 He left school to work in a cotton factory Later he studied law before becoming a politician Elected to Congress in 1853 as a Democrat he opposed the western expansion of slavery and switched to the Republican Party in 1855 In 1858 he was elected governor of his home state Lincoln needed the support of influential men when war began and gave them key military offices In May 1861 the president appointed Banks major general of volunteers despite his lack of military experience Failed campaigns In the summer of 1861 Banks and his men were routed by Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia On August 9 1862 Banks came up against Jackson again at Cedar Mountain Virginia Banks and his men were beaten and the Union suffered 2,500 casualties The military initiative in Virginia swung in favor of the Confederates and only Banks’s friendship with Lincoln saved his job Later campaigns reinforced Banks’s poor military reputation In May 1863 he led the Army of the Gulf against the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson on the Mississippi The Confederates successfully fought off the attack Another Union assault on June 14 failed the Confederates surrendered only after Vicksburg fell to the Union farther upriver Banks fared no better in the Red River Campaign and in 1865 he was removed from command Banks returned to politics to serve in the House of Representatives Curriculum Context Some curricula ask students to study the emergence of the Republican Party and its effect on American politics Curriculum Context Students should be able to describe how political appointments led to men with little military experience becoming officers on both sides early in the war 6 People
Beauregard Pierre G T Beauregard 1818 1893 was one of the eight full generals of the Confederate army He became a popular hero after commanding the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and saw action in every major theater of the war Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born into a French Creole family in Louisiana He attended the U S Military Academy at West Point graduating second in his class in 1838 He served in the Mexican War 1846 1848 and was twice wounded When Louisiana seceded from the Union in January 1861 Beauregard resigned from the U S Army and was commissioned as the first brigadier general of the Confederacy He was ordered to South Carolina where he commanded the attack on the garrison at Fort Sumter in April 1861 Military campaigns Hailed as a hero across the Confederacy after the fall of Sumter Beauregard took command of the Confederate army in northern Virginia At the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21 Beauregard was second-in-command to Joseph E Johnston facing a Union army under his former West Point classmate Irwin McDowell Beauregard’s network of spies in Washington provided valuable information on the Union forces and his role in the battle earned him promotion to full general Beauregard moved west to command the Army of the Mississippi in March 1862 He was second-in-command to Albert S Johnston in the Battle of Shiloh in April and took charge after Johnston was fatally wounded His retreat from Shiloh and later withdrawal from Corinth angered President Davis who fired him in June when Beauregard left his army without permission Curriculum Context Beauregard was one of the leading military figures in the Confederacy particularly in the early part of the war 8 People
An excellent engineer and able commander P G T Beauregard was also vain and egotistical In August 1862 Beauregard returned to duty as the senior Confederate commander in Georgia and South Carolina He organized the defense of Charleston until April 1864 when he transferred to help defend Richmond After holding back a Union advance along the James River in May he was assigned to overall command of the armies in Tennessee and Georgia in October 1864 By January 1865 Beauregard was organizing the retreat through Georgia and the Carolinas In February he ordered Charleston to be evacuated In April after the loss of Richmond and the Army of Northern Virginia he was one of the senior figures who urged Davis to negotiate the surrender of the last Confederate forces to end the war After the war Beauregard returned to his home state of Louisiana where he served as state adjutant general for several years Curriculum Context You might be asked to describe the different attitudes toward surrender among Confederate officers and politicians Beauregard Pierre G T 9
