Louis Hebert was an American civil engineer and soldier. He served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army and took part in five important battles during the American Civil War.
Background
Louis Hebert was born on March 13, 1820, in Bayou Goula, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. He was the son of Valéry and Clarisse Bush Hébert, both of Iberville Parish, Louisiana. He was a descendant of Louis Hébert who settled in Canada in 1604. In 1755, Paul Gaston Hébert, his great-grandson, left Port Royal (Annapolis), Nova Scotia, and in 1767 settled in Louisiana. His son, Armand Valéry, was Louis's grandfather and also the grandfather of Paul Octave Hébert, Louis’s cousin.
Education
Hébert’s early education was directed by private teachers on his father’s plantation, and later he was sent to Jefferson College in St. James Parish, from which he graduated in 1840. Receiving an appointment to West Point, he was graduated there in 1845, third in his class, and was made brevet second lieutenant of engineers.
For two years Louis Hébert served as an assistant engineer in the construction of Fort Livingston, Barataria Island, Louisiana.
In 1847, he resigned from the army to take charge of his father's sugar estate in Iberville Parish. From 1847 to 1850 he was major in the Louisiana militia and colonel from 1858 to 1861; from 1853 to 1855, a member of the state Senate; and from 1855 to 1859, chief engineer of Louisiana. In the latter year, this office was abolished and he became a member of the board of public works.
At the opening of the Civil War, he entered the service of the Confederate states as colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry, a well-drilled and equipped organization chiefly made up of men from northern Louisiana, which was placed in the brigade of General McCulloch.
At the battle of Wilson's Creek his division did gallant work. At Pea Ridge, where both his senior officers, McCulloch and McIntosh, were killed, Hebert and numbers of his officers and men were captured. On May 26, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and, after being exchanged, led the 2nd Brigade, Little's division, Price's army, in northern Mississippi.
He took a gallant part in the battle of Iuka, bearing the brunt of Rosecrans' attack. He was afterward for a time in command of Little's division, distinguished himself in the battle of Corinth, and served in the siege of Vicksburg. After the fall of that city, Hebert was in charge of the heavy artillery in the Cape Fear department under Major General Whitney and acted as chief engineer of the war department of North Carolina.
When peace was declared he went back to his native parish and became editor of the Iberville South, a weekly paper published in the town of Plaquemines. Later Louis Hébert taught in private schools both in Iberville and St. Martin parishes, taking no part in politics.
Achievements
Connections
In 1848 Louis Hébert married Malvina Lambremont. Three sons were born of this union.