Hilary Abner HERBERT, Congress, AL (1834-1919)

HERBERT Hilary Abner , a Representative from Alabama; born in Laurens, Laurens County, S.C., March 12, 1834; moved with his parents to Greenville, Butler County, Ala., in 1846; attended the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1853 and 1854 and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1855 and 1856; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1857 and commenced practice in Greenville, Ala.; entered the Confederate service as captain of the Greenville Guards; promoted to the rank of colonel of the Eighth Regiment, Alabama Infantry; disabled at the Battle of the Wilderness May 6, 1864; resumed the practice of law in Greenville, Ala., until 1872, when he moved to Montgomery, Ala.; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1893); chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-second Congresses); served in the Cabinet of President Cleveland as Secretary of the Navy 1893-1897; located in Washington, D.C., and practiced law until his death; died in Tampa, Fla., March 6, 1919; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Ala.

Bibliography

Hammett, Hugh B. Hilary Abner Herbert: A Southerner Returns to the Union. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976; Herbert, Hilary Abner. The Abolition Crusade and its Consequences; Four Periods of American History. New York: Scribner's Sons, 1912.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present