Born at Iberville Parish, LA, Hebert has a distinguished scholastic record, graduating 1st in his class at Jefferson College in 1836. Four years later, he graduated 1st in his class at West Point, where William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas were his classmates. He received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, July 1, 1840. He served as Assistant to the Board of Engineers, 1840-1841; at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor of Engineering, August 30, 1841-July 21, 1842; and as Assistant Engineer in the construction of the defenses of the Western Passes to New Orleans, LA, 1842-1845. He resigned from the Army in 1845 to accept the position of Chief Engineer of the State of Louisiana, a post he held until the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1847.

He was re-appointed to the U. S. Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, 14th Infantry, April 9, 1847. Hebert was in the War with Mexico, being engaged in the Battle of Contreras, August 19-20, 1847; Battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847 and the Battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847. He was breveted to Colonel, September 8, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the Battle of Molina del Rey.

Hebert was thereafter engaged in the Storming of Chapultepec, September 13, 1847; and the Assault and Capture of the City of Mexico, September 13-14, 1847. Disbanded, July 25, 1848, he became a planter at Iberville Parish, LA, 1848-1861. He was a Member of the Convention to frame a new Constitution for the State of Louisiana, 1852.

Hebert was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1852, serving from January 1, 1853 to January 28, 1856. After leaving office he helped get his former West Point classmate, William Tecumseh Sherman, appointed superintendent of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning and Military Academy.

He was commissioned Colonel, 1st LA Artillery, in early 1861, and appointed a Brigadier-General on August 17, 1861, commanding the Department of Louisiana for a time. He commanded successively the Department of Texas, the Defenses at Galveston, and the District of North Louisiana. He apparently was involved in only one conflict of consequence, that of Milliken's Bend on June 7, 1863.

Paul Octave Hebert

In August, 1864 Hebert replaced Major-General John B. Magruder as commander of the District of Texas. Within a month he was relieved by Major-General James G. Walker and took over the eastern sub-district of Texas. He held this post until May, 1865. After Lee's surrender in April, 1865, Edmund Kirby Smith turned over the Trans-Mississippi Department to Magruder who immediately gave it to Hebert. Kirby Smith and Magruder took off for Mexico. On May 26, 1865, the day after assuming command of the department, Hebert surrendered it to Union General Gordon Granger. Though only commissioned a Brigadier-General, many considered him a Major-General as he had commanded a department both early and late in the war.

Following the Civil War he returned to Iberville Parish, LA where he was a planter, 1866-1880. He took an oath of allegiance and through an endorsement from his old friend William T. Sherman received a Presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson. He became a Liberal Republican during Reconstruction, angering many Louisianians, and supported the carpetbagger governor Henry Clay Warmouth.

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