The main army of the South
was now concentrated to oppose the main army of the North from
Washington.
Brigadier General Beauregard, the widely acclaimed hero of Fort Sumter,
was in command of this army near Manassas Station on the road to
Alexandria.
Beauregard's position was in a measure an accident of fortune. The first
shot had been fired by him at Sumter. He was the first paper-made hero
of the war. He had led the first regiment into Virginia to defend her
from invasion.
He was the man of the hour. His training and record, too, gave promise
of high achievements. He had graduated from West Point in 1838, second
in a class of forty-five men. His family was of high French extraction,
having settled in Louisiana in the reign of Louis XV. He had entered the
Mexican War a lieutenant and emerged from the campaign a major. He was
now forty-five years old, in the prime of life. His ability had been
recognized by the National Government in the beginning of the year by
his appointment as Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point.
His commission had been revoked at the last moment by the vacillating
Buchanan because his brother-in-law, Senator Slidell of Louisiana, had
made a secession speech in Washington.
Jefferson Davis was not enthusiastic in his confidence in the new hero.
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