Paul Octave Hébert Paul Octave Hébert ( December 12 , 1818 – August 29 , 1880 ) was the 14th Governor of Louisiana from 1853 – 56 and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army . Early life . Hébert was born on December 12 , 1818 about five miles south of Plaquemine in Iberville Parish , Louisiana . He graduated first in his class at Jefferson College in 1836 . He then went to study at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he graduated at the top of his class in 1840 . He was a classmate of American Civil War Generals Winfield Scott Hancock , William T . Sherman , Joseph Wheeler and George H . Thomas . The following year he was a professor of engineering at West Point . In 1842 , Hébert married Marie Coralie Wills Vaughn , the daughter of a sugar planter . They had five children . State engineer . In 1845 , Hébert resigned from the army after being appointed Chief Engineer of the State of Louisiana by Governor Alexander Mouton . He was reappointed by Governor Isaac Johnson in 1846 , but he resigned in March , 1847 to fight in the Mexican - American War . Mexican - American War . On March 3 , 1847 , Hébert accepted a commission as a lieutenant colonel of the U . S . 3rd Infantry Regiment , and then on April 9 , 1847 he was transferred to the U . S . 14th Infantry Regiment . As a lieutenant colonel of the U . S . 14th Infantry Regiment he fought at Contreras , Churubusco , Molino del Rey , Chapultepec and Mexico City . At Molino del Rey he was honored by General Winfield Scott and was brevetted a Colonel for bravery . He was cited for gallantry at Chapultepec and Mexico City . Discharged on July 25 , 1848 , in New Orleans , Colonel Hébert entered politics . Political career . He ran as a Democrat for the State Senate in 1849 . He lost the election by nine votes . Following this he returned to his sugar plantation in Iberville . In 1851 , Governor Joseph Marshall Walker appointed Hébert a delegate to the Industrial Exhibition in London . The next year , a division among Iberville Parish Whigs gave him a seat at the 1852 Louisiana Constitutional Convention which adopted a new state constitution that was strongly pro - Whig . As a result Governor Walker resigned early and an election was called . Since John Slidell , the leader of one faction of Louisiana Democrats was focusing on his campaign for the U . S . Senate , the Democrats turned to Hébert as their nominee for governor . He campaigned against some features of the new constitution , called for internal improvements , reform of the state militia , a banking system by general laws and redemption in specie or all paper money . Running against Judge Bordelon , a Whig from St . Landry Parish , Hébert garnered 17 , 334 votes to Bordelon ' s 15 , 781 . Term as governor . Hébert took the oath as Governor and guided the legislature towards improvements in water commerce and railroad construction . He also established the Louisiana Seminary of Learning at Alexandria which would later become Louisiana State University . Hébert also instituted the State Library , reorganized the militia , improved Charity Hospital and organized the efforts against yellow fever of 1853 . Nationalism and the rise of the Know Nothing Party or American Party was a feature of Louisiana politics in the 1850s . Whig newspapers tried to discredit Hébert by starting rumors of his allegiance with the Know Nothings . He still appointed some Whigs to minor offices and some Know Nothings to lucrative posts . He was considered very independent in his appointments and many Democrats were disenchanted with him toward the end of his administration . Hébert was mentioned as a possible candidate for the U . S . Senate , but John Slidell was not vulnerable to an intraparty challenge . During his administration Hébert saw four major railroads incorporated in Louisiana including the New Orleans , Jackson and Great Northern Railroad . Hébert sought to connect every part of Louisiana to New Orleans by rail . He also built levees and sought land reclamation projects . In 1855 , Hébert promoted and the legislature passed a tax of on all property to support the public school system which is open only to whites between the ages of six and sixteen . With his term at an end , Governor Hébert retired to his plantation as a planter . Civil War . With rising tension between North and South , President Abraham Lincoln was elected in December , 1860 . Governor Thomas Overton Moore appointed Hébert to the military board to reorganize militia and defenses in the New Orleans area . He was appointed as a Colonel of the 1st Louisiana Artillery . After secession on April 1 , 1861 Hébert was appointed a Brigadier General in the Louisiana Militia . In August , he was Commissioned a Brigadier General in the provisional Army of the Confederacy but is not given an active position . Later he will have a command of Louisiana troops and in the Trans - Mississippi Department . Also on May 21 , 1861 , his first wife Marie Coralie Hébert died . He later married Penelope Lynch , daughter of John Andrews of Iberville Parish . In 1862 , General Hébert is posted in the Department of Texas and later in the defense of Vicksburg . He saw battle in June , 1863 , at the Battle of Milliken ' s Bend in Louisiana . After that , he was again posted in Texas , where he was at the time the war ended . Hébert returned to his Louisiana plantation and received a pardon from President Andrew Johnson . Postwar . He was active in the politics of Reconstruction supporting the Liberal Republican movement and accepted a minor appointment in New Orleans . In 1872 , Hébert endorsed Horace Greeley and opposed the Louisiana " Custom House " Republican faction . He supported Republican Governor Henry C . Warmoth . Governor William P . Kellogg appointed him to the Board of State Engineers in 1873 and the Board of U . S . Engineers for Mississippi River Commission in 1874 . In the presidential election of 1876 , Governor Hébert changed political allegiance back to the Democrats . He died on April 29 , 1880 and was buried in St . Paul Cemetery in Bayou Goula , Louisiana . Encroachment of the Mississippi River caused many individuals to be reinterred . Governor Hébert ' s remains , and those of his first wife , Marie Coralie Hébert , were interred at St . Raphael Cemetery in Point Pleasant , La .