Today in History (general history)/ On This Day in Confederate History/ Confederate General Birthdays, November 11.

Click 👉 TODAY IN HISTORY (general history) 

ON THIS DAY IN CONFEDERATE HISTORY, Nov. 12

1861: The blockade runner Fingal, purchased by the Confederate government in England, runs the Federal blockade to arrive in Savannah, Georgia. The ship will later be converted into an ironclad, to become the C.S.S. Atlanta. Asa and Nelson Tift won the contract to do the conversion. The Atlanta received ironclad casemates, was equipped with eight gunports and its armament included two 7-inch Brooke rifles on pivot mounts at the bow and stern: two 6.4-inch Brooke rifles, one spar torpedo, and a Naval Ram. The crew numbered 145 officers and men.

1863: General Longstreet's Confederate infantry and "Fighting Joe" Wheeler's Confederate cavalry arrived in Loudon, Tennessee, to take part in the Siege of Knoxville.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL BIRTHDAYS, Nov. 12

Brigadier General Paul Octave Hébert was born on this day in 1818 in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. A brilliant student, he graduated first in his class from Jefferson College in 1836 and at the top of his class at West Point in 1840. He was made a professor of engineering at West Point in 1841. Resigning from the army in 1844, Hébert was appointed by Gov. Alexandre Mouton as Chief Engineer of Louisiana. During the Mexican-American War, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, transferred to the 14th Infantry Regiment, and fought with distinction at Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. Gen. Winfield Scott brevetted him a colonel for his bravery. Resigning after the war, he was elected to the Louisiana Senate and then governor of Louisiana. He also served in the Louisiana Militia as a colonel and brigadier general. Hébert was also commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and given command of Texas. He disappointed the Texans when he considered Galveston not defensible and gave up the city without a fight in October 1862, and was replaced by General John Bankhead Magruder, who liberated Galveston on January 1, 1863. He was present at the Battle of Milliken's Bend, La., on June 7, 1863, and afterward was posted back to Texas for the rest of the war. Following the war, Hébert supported the Republicans in New Orleans, served on the state Board of Engineers, and switched back to the Democrats in 1876. Hébert passed away at Bayou Goula, Louisiana, on August 29, 1880, and was buried in St. Paul's Cemetery there. However, because of encroachment by the Mississippi River, his remains were reburied at St. Raphael Cemetery at Point Pleasant near Plaquemine, LA.

Gen. Paul O. Hébert is seen here in his

dark blue, early war uniform as the colonel

of the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery Regiment

(Regulars) which was one of the first two 

which was part of the Louisiana National

Army (after secession and before it joined the Confederacy)

rather than state militia. It saw

action in the battles for New Orleans in 1861-62,

the  Vicksburg Campaign in 1862-63, and  the

Mobile Campaign of 1864-65.

(Library of Congress/Colorized by AI)

Click👉Thunder Guns of Vicksburg

The First Louisiana Heavy Artillery

This is the history of the First Louisiana Heavy Artillery Regiment in the War for Southern Independence. The regiment began the war by safeguarding the Confederacy's most populous city, New Orleans. The big "Thunder Guns" were then assigned to the Confederate "Gibraltar" of the Confederacy, Vicksburg, Mississippi. It then finished the war at one of the South's last great cities and ports, Mobile, Alabama. In each case, the First Louisiana Heavies were involved in some of the most critical and desperate fights in the South's valiant struggle to establish its Southern Republic among the nations of the world.