 |
While studying law in at Bardstown College, Kentucky, the
former Kentucky Gov. Charles A.Wickliffe heard young Felix Poché give an oration on John
Calhoun and was so impressed he invited the Louisiana law student to study in his offices.
Three years later, in 1858, Poché was admitted to the Kentucky bar and continued to
practice law with Gov. Wickliffe. In 1859, Felix Poché returned to Louisiana and began practicing law with Judge J. J. Romain at Thibodaux. He also taught school on a part-time basis at Thibodeaux College. In June of 1862, he entered the 18th Louisiana Infantry as Captain of a company under Col. Louis Bush, and in November was placed on the staff of Gen. Alfred Mouton as commissary subsistence officer. Felix Poché wrote in his diary eyewitness descriptions of the Battle of Mansfield and of the battleground immediately after the Battle of Pleasant Hill. After the Civil War, Felix Poché was also an active leader in Louisiana constitution work and at one time was president of the State Constitution Convention. He was one of the founders and a charter member of the American Bar Association. In 1880 Poché, at the age of 44, became an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. |
|