s too late.

Johnston's death left the command of the army to General Pierre
Beauregard, who had had the somewhat dubious honor of firing the first
shot of the war against Fort Sumter and of capturing the little garrison
which defended it. Beauregard was a West Point man, standing high in his
class, and his work, previous to the war, was largely in the engineer
corps. When the war began, he was superintendent of the academy at West
Point, but resigned at once to join the South. After the capture of
Sumter, he was ordered to Virginia and was in practical command at the
first battle of Bull Run, which resulted in the rout of the Union
forces. After that, he was sent to Tennessee, as second in command to
Albert Sidney Johnston, and he succeeded to the command of the army on
Johnston's death at Shiloh.

The first day's fighting at Shiloh had resulted in a Confederate
victory, but Beauregard was not able to maintain this advantage on the
second day, and was finally compelled to draw off his forces. Grant
pursued him, and Beauregard was forced to retreat far to the south
before he was safe from capture. Two years later, he attempted to stop
Sherman on his march to the sea, but was unable to do so, and, joining
forces with Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered, to Sherman a few days after
Appomattox.

Joseph E. Johnston had been a classmate of Lee at West Point, and had
seen much service before the Civil War began. He was aide-de-camp to
General Scott in the Black Hawk war; and in the war with the Florida
Indians, was brevetted for gallantry in rescuing the force he commanded
from an ambush into which it had been lured, the fight being so
desperate that, besides being wounded, no less than thirty bullets
penetrated his clothes. In the war with Mexico he was thrice brevetted
for gallantry, and was seriously wounded at Cerro Gordo and again at
Chapultepec. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was
quartermaster-general of the United States army, resigning that position
to take service with the South.

When McDowell advanced against Beauregard at Bull Run, Johnston, who was
at Winchester, hastened with his army to the scene of battle, and this
reinforcement, which McDowell had endeavored vainly to prevent, won the
day for the Confederates. He remained in command at Richmond, opposing
McClellan's advance up the peninsula, but was badly wounded at the
battle of Seven Pines, and was incapacitated for duty for several
months, Lee succ