A hundred years ago today [May 10, 1864] a dramatic gentleman bearing a name which was not commonplace made his entrance into Petersburg. He was the great Creole, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who in April  had been placed in command of Confederate defenses south of James River.
Private correspondence describes the cheering and the martial music which greeted the substantial reinforcements which reached Petersburg on the same day. Troops arrived over both the Petersburg Railroad, commonly called the Petersburg and Weldon, and the Southside Railroad. Their ardor had been increased by the damage which they had seen in Jarratt, Stony Creek, and other stations along the way. One letter writer said that soldiers seemed to be pouring into Petersburg as if on the wind.
During this time numerous small engagements occurred at Chester, Arrowfield, Brander's Bridge, and other places not far distant from Petersburg. As noted above, it was also a time of railroad raids. In spite of the inadequacy of Confederate railroad policy from beginning to end, the Confederate government was still able to repair the damage.
Beauregard had been the Confederacy's first great hero.4 Innumerable babies of the early 1860's had been named for him, and he had been honored with an extraordinary outpouring of poor music and worse verse. His fame has not worn as well as it deserved.
Beauregard was weak on logistics, he was dedicated to the principles of Jomini6 whether or not they were applicable, and he had a propensity for meddling in other people's business when his own was relatively quiet, but he has some magnificent qualities which were richly demonstrated at Petersburg. It is rather odd that, even in the post-war period of pious commemoration, nobody ever suggested doing anything about Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. In his own country things were different. In Louisiana it was not unknown for Lee to be commended on the ground that Beauregard had spoken quite well of him.