Thus closes my notes for the month of December and also for the year just passed and gone and now numbered with the things that were. Whether the Almighty will spare me to chronicle the daily events of the incoming year is more than I know but trusting in Him I shall enter upon the pleasing task, which is useful as a reference and may be profitable to those who have an interest in me.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Monday, May 26th, 1862
To day Capt. Wrigley arrived in the cars from Houston, and brought me an appointment from Genl. Hebert as enrolling officer for Liberty Co. under which I proceeded to enroll several conscripts. I went up town and drilled the officers of the 5th Regt. 2nd. Brig. F.S.T. of which I have the honor to be the Colonel. weather clear & warm. The little woman is still confined to her bed.
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From The Handbook of Texas Online . . . With Louisiana's secession, Hébert was appointed colonel of the First Louisiana Artillery; on August 17 he was promoted to brigadier general. Soon thereafter he was appointed to the command of the Department of Texas, superseding Earl Van Dorn and the interim administration of Henry E. McCulloch. Hébert assumed command on September 16, 1861, and established his headquarters at Galveston. Appalled by the state's lack of an adequate coastal defense system, he wrote to Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker, "I regret to say that I find this coast in almost a defenseless state, and in the almost total want of proper works and armaments; the task of defending successfully any point against an attack of any magnitude amounts to a military impossibility." The general called, therefore, on every Texan to "clean his old musket, shot-gun, or rifle, run his bullets, fill his powder-horn, sharpen his knife, and see that his revolver is ready to his hand." If the men responded to his call, he assured them, although the Texas coast might be invaded, the enemy would "never hold a foot of your soil-never!" Despite such rhetoric, Hébert proved unpopular with Texas troops, who considered him aristocratic and imperious. Further, he did not win the approval of Governor Francis R. Lubbock, who considered him "somewhat bewildered by the magnitude of the task assigned him, and not to have matured...any definite line of policy." Hébert was replaced, therefore, in 1862 by Gen. John B. Magruder. Thereafter he commanded the subdistrict of North Louisiana, where, in the words of Lt. Col. James Arthur Lyon Fremantle of Her Majesty's Coldstream Guard, he was "shelved at Monroe, where he expects to be taken prisoner any day." His only combat experience came at the battle of Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, on June 7, 1863.
ReplyDeletePaul Octave Hebert at findagrave . . .
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