Camp Beauregard

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Camp Beauregard is a U.S. Army installation located Northeast of Pineville, Louisiana. It is currently operated by the Louisiana National Guard as one of their main training areas. The current base covers 12,500 acres and is home to many different units and elements of LAARNG.

The beginnings of what might be considered the existing post started in 1917, when the War Department authorized the building of over 30 such camps over the country, in order to train troops for WWI. The camp was abandoned in 1919 and given to the state. It was returned to the U.S. Government in 1940 for use as a WWII training area. This is the time period during which Beauregard really got busy. The area had been effectively deforested in previous years and was unusable for agriculture. That fact, and the hot, muggy weather made this a logical location to train American troops in preparation for East-Asian war efforts.

The camp, and several tens of thousands of acres of surrounding land, including Camps Claiborne, Livingston, Cook, Polk & the now Esler Regional Airport were used for the Louisiana Maneuvers, a training exercise, involving almost 500,000 men, preparing them for the battles of WWII that they would soon be involved in. A full 2/3rds of the U.S. military rotated through these war-games. A large part of the state of Louisiana, centered around these large camps, became almost an occupied territory.

After the war, the camp reverted back to the state, which used it as a training area for 2 years, then deactivated it. The camp was reactivated in 1973 and became one of the premier training areas in Louisiana. Since then, most of the old buildings have either been torn down or remodeled, and many new buildings have been constructed to support the current mission.