Louis Hébert (1820–1901)

A Louisiana native, Louis Hébert commanded a Confederate infantry brigade in Arkansas at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Eventually promoted to brigadier general, Hébert was captured by Federal forces three times during the Civil War.

Born on March 13, 1820, in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, Louis Hébert was the son of Valery Amant Hébert and Marie-Charisse Bouche Hébert. Hébert’s father owned sugar cane plantations in southern Louisiana.

Hébert attended Jefferson College of Louisiana before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1841. Graduating third in his class in 1845, Hébert received a commission in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He resigned his commission after only two years of service and returned home to operate the family plantations, as his father died the same year. He left Hébert and his three siblings a total of eighty-four enslaved people.

In 1848, Hébert married Malvina Lambremont, and the couple had at least three children. Hébert served a term in the state legislature, being elected in 1853, as well as multiple terms as the appointed state engineer. In the final years before the Civil War, Hébert served on the state board of public works. He continued his military service with a post in the Louisiana militia, serving as the chief engineer and receiving a promotion to colonel in 1853. In the 1860 federal census, Hébert is listed as the owner of six enslaved people. Malvina Hébert died in 1860.

At the outbreak of war, Hébert received command of the Third Louisiana Infantry with the rank of colonel. The unit trained in New Orleans before moving to Little Rock (Pulaski County), where the men of the regiment camped on the grounds of the U.S. Arsenal. On June 7, 1861, the regiment arrived in Fort Smith (Sebastian County), and Hébert arrived about a week later. During this period, Hébert drilled the men and enforced military discipline.

Moving to Missouri, the regiment joined a brigade under the command of Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch and Colonel James McIntosh. The Confederate forces were joined by units of the Missouri State Guard to oppose Union troops in the state. At the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, the Louisianans captured a battery of Union artillery. The regiment, with a strength of 700, lost a total of nine men killed and forty-eight wounded in the battle.

Hébert and his men continued to serve in the Trans-Mississippi Department in the Army of the West under the command of Major General Earl Van Dorn. Before the Battle of Pea Ridge, Hébert received command of an infantry brigade that consisted of his regiment; the Fourth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth (Northwest), Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Arkansas Infantry regiments; the First and Second Arkansas Mounted Rifles (Dismounted), and the dismounted Fourth Texas Cavalry Battalion. During the battle, Hébert stumbled into Federal lines, which led to his capture. Quickly exchanged, Hébert moved with the bulk of Confederate forces in Arkansas across the Mississippi River.

Receiving a promotion to brigadier general on May 26, 1862, Hébert commanded a brigade during campaigns in northern Mississippi, including at Corinth and Iuka. During the Vicksburg Campaign, Hébert’s brigade contained Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama units, along with a battery of Arkansas artillery. The entire Confederate army at Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, leading to Hébert’s second stint as a prisoner of war.

Exchanged on October 13, 1863, Hébert spent the rest of the war in North Carolina, where he worked as an engineer to construct fortifications. By the end of 1864, Hébert commanded the defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. With the fall of Fort Fisher and other nearby defensive works on the North Carolina coast, Hébert once again fell into Federal captivity. He received his parole on May 1, 1865, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

At the conclusion of the war, Hébert returned home to Louisiana and operated a number of businesses, including a newspaper, and also worked as an educator. He died on January 7, 1901, near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Initially buried in the Hébert Family Cemetery, his remains were moved in 2002 to St. Joseph Catholic Church Cemetery in Cecilia, Louisiana.

For additional information:
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002.

Piston, William Garrett, and Richard W. Hatcher III. Wilson’s Creek : The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Shea, William L., and Earl J. Hess. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

“Soldiers of Louisiana.” New Orleans Times Picayune, March 31, 1889, p. 10.

Tunnard, W. H. A Southern Record: The History of the Third Regiment Louisiana Infantry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997.

Warner, Ezra. Generals in Gray: Lives of Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University