The American Civil War began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries under the command of Pierre G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Union commander inside the fort was Major Robert Anderson — Beauregard's former artillery instructor at West Point, whose favorite cadet Beauregard had been and whose teaching assistant he had served as in the year after his own graduation. Through the long winter of 1860–61, as South Carolina seceded and Anderson refused to evacuate, Beauregard had sent his old teacher cigars, brandy, and provisions for his small garrison while simultaneously building the artillery emplacements that would eventually bombard the fort. After thirty-four hours of bombardment Anderson surrendered. Beauregard treated the surrender with Old World courtesy — he allowed Anderson a gun salute to the Union flag before evacuation, sent his own boats to transport the garrison out, and corresponded with Anderson cordially for the rest of his life. Three months later at First Bull Run, Beauregard's tactical plan defeated the first major Union army to take the field, and Thomas Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall" while standing under Beauregard's overall command. Beauregard took command on the second day at Shiloh after Albert Sidney Johnston was killed on Day 1 — his decision to halt the Day 1 attack remains the most-debated tactical choice of his career — held Charleston Harbor against a year of Union naval and land attacks, and in June 1864 saved Petersburg with a thinly-held defensive line that held off Grant's army until Lee could arrive. He was born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, in 1818, the son of a Creole sugar planter; he did not learn English until he was twelve; and his five-day tenure as Superintendent of West Point in January 1861 — terminated when Louisiana seceded — remains the shortest superintendency in the Academy's history.

This W. Britain figure depicts Beauregard in the Confederate brigadier general's frock coat in light gray-blue (Beauregard preferred the lighter shade common in Louisiana units), the dark blue kepi with the red and gold infantry trim, and the standard Confederate officer's sword drawn in his right hand. The kepi rather than the slouch hat is characteristic of Beauregard — Creole formality persisted in his uniforms throughout the war. The mustache and short side whiskers are the European-styled grooming he carried over from his New Orleans youth. He was, by temperament, the most French of any general in the Confederate service: courteous to the point of theater, ambitious in command, methodical in engineering, devoted to artillery, and never fully at ease with the unschooled Anglo-Confederate political leadership. Jefferson Davis disliked him personally and kept him at the periphery of Eastern command after early 1862. Beauregard nevertheless became, alongside Lee, one of the most important Confederate commanders to survive the war intact. Pair this figure with General Robert E. Lee, whose defense of Petersburg in June 1864 was possible only because Beauregard's small force had held the city for three days before Lee arrived; with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the Union opposite number Beauregard fought at Shiloh in April 1862 and outside Petersburg in June 1864 — the only Confederate general to face Grant in major engagements in both Western and Eastern theaters; or with Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who earned the nickname "Stonewall" at First Bull Run while serving under Beauregard's overall command.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31080. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.