Beauregard was born at the "Contreras" sugar-cane plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, about 20 miles (32 km) outside New Orleans, to a French Creole family.
Beauregard was the third child of Hélène Judith de Reggio, of mixed French and Italian ancestry and  descendant of Francesco M. de Reggio, member of an Italian noble family whose family had migrated first to France and then to Louisiana, and her husband, Jacques Toutant-Beauregard, of French and Welsh ancestry.
He had three brothers and three sisters.
His family was Roman Catholic.

As a child, Beauregard befriended and played with slave boys his own age, and was weaned as a baby by a Dominican slave woman.
He grew up in a large one-story house, unlike the "later plantation palaces, but a mansion of aristocracy by the standards of its time."
Beauregard would hunt and ride in the woods and fields around his family's plantation and paddled his boat in its waterways.
 Beauregard attended New Orleans private schools and then went to a "French school" in New York City.
During his four years in New York, beginning at age 12, he learned to speak English, as French had been his first and only language in Louisiana.

He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
One of his instructors was Robert Anderson, who later became the commander of Fort Sumter and surrendered to Beauregard at the start of the Civil War.
Upon enrolling at West Point, Beauregard dropped the hyphen from his surname and treated Toutant as a middle name, to fit in with his classmates.
From that point on, he rarely used his first name, preferring "G. T. Beauregard."
He graduated second in his class in 1838 and excelled both as an artilleryman and military engineer.
His Army friends gave him many nicknames: "Little Creole", "Bory", "Little Frenchman", "Felix", and "Little Napoleon".
Beauregard was born at the "Contreras" sugar-cane plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, about 20 miles (32 km) outside New Orleans, to a French Creole family. Beauregard was the third child of Hélène Judith de Reggio, of mixed French and Italian ancestry and  descendant of Francesco M. de Reggio, member of an Italian noble family whose family had migrated first to France and then to Louisiana, and her husband, Jacques Toutant-Beauregard, of French and Welsh ancestry. He had three brothers and three sisters. His family was Roman Catholic.
As a child, Beauregard befriended and played with slave boys his own age, and was weaned as a baby by a Dominican slave woman. He grew up in a large one-story house, unlike the "later plantation palaces, but a mansion of aristocracy by the standards of its time." Beauregard would hunt and ride in the woods and fields around his family's plantation and paddled his boat in its waterways.  Beauregard attended New Orleans private schools and then went to a "French school" in New York City. During his four years in New York, beginning at age 12, he learned to speak English, as French had been his first and only language in Louisiana.
He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. One of his instructors was Robert Anderson, who later became the commander of Fort Sumter and surrendered to Beauregard at the start of the Civil War. Upon enrolling at West Point, Beauregard dropped the hyphen from his surname and treated Toutant as a middle name, to fit in with his classmates. From that point on, he rarely used his first name, preferring "G. T. Beauregard." He graduated second in his class in 1838 and excelled both as an artilleryman and military engineer. His Army friends gave him many nicknames: "Little Creole", "Bory", "Little Frenchman", "Felix", and "Little Napoleon".
P. G. T. Beauregard