Editing P. G. T. Beauregard (section)

====Start of the Civil War, Fort Sumter====
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| caption1 = The [[Battle of Fort Sumter]], April 12–13, 1861
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Arriving in Charleston on March 3, 1861, Beauregard met with Governor [[Francis Wilkinson Pickens]] and inspected the defenses of the harbor, which he found to be in disarray. He was said to display "a great deal in the way of zeal and energy ... but little professional knowledge and experience."<ref>Hattaway & Taylor, p. 21.</ref> Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter wrote to Washington, D.C., that Beauregard, who had been his student at West Point in 1837,<ref>Fort Sumter brochure, [[National Park Service]], [[United States Department of Interior]]</ref> would guarantee that South Carolina's actions be exercised with "skill and sound judgment." Beauregard wrote to the Confederate government that Anderson was a "most gallant officer". He sent several cases of fine brandy and whiskey and boxes of cigars to Anderson and his officers at Sumter, but Anderson ordered that the gifts be returned.<ref>Detzer, ''Allegiance'', p. 208.</ref>

By early April, political tensions were mounting and Beauregard demanded that Sumter surrender before a planned Union expedition to re-provision the fort could arrive. Early on the morning of April 12, negotiations with Anderson had failed. Beauregard ordered the first shots of the American Civil War to be fired from nearby Fort Johnson. The [[Battle of Fort Sumter|bombardment of Fort Sumter]] lasted for 34 hours. After a heavy bombardment from batteries ringing the harbor, Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter on April 14. Biographer [[T. Harry Williams]] described the extravagant praise from throughout the Confederacy that "The Hero of Fort Sumter" received for his victory: "He was the South's first [[paladin]]."<ref>Detzer, ''Allegiance'', pp. 272–301; Williams, pp. 57–61; {{cite web |title=Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard |url=http://www.civilwarhome.com/beaubio.htm |work=Biography |publisher=Civil War Home |access-date=May 18, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514000738/http://www.civilwarhome.com/beaubio.htm|archive-date=May 14, 2011}}</ref>