Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893) is a Louisiana-born American military officer, politician, inventor, writer, civil servant, and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Today he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely uses his first name as an adult and signs correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.

Beauregard is trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy and serves with distinction as an engineer in the Mexican-American War.

Following a brief appointment at West Point in 1861, with the South's secession, he becomes the first Confederate brigadier general.

He commands the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.

Three months later, he is the victor at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.

Beauregard commands armies in the Western Theater, including at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, and the Siege of Corinth in northern Mississippi.

He returns to Charleston and defends it from repeated naval and land attacks in 1863.

His greatest achievement is saving the important industrial city of Petersburg, Virginia, and thus also the Confederate capital of Richmond, from assaults by overwhelmingly superior Union Army forces in June 1864.

However, his influence over Confederate strategy is marred by his poor professional relationships with President Jefferson Davis and other senior generals and officials.

In April 1865, Beauregard and his commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, convince Davis and the remaining cabinet members that the war needs to end.

Johnston surrenders most of the remaining armies of the Confederacy, including Beauregard and his men, to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.

Following his military career, Beauregard serves as a railroad executive.

He becomes one of the few wealthy Confederate veterans because of his role in promoting the Louisiana Lottery.