March 15, 1915

The U.S. Army promoted civil engineer William Luther Sibert to the rank of brigadier general. A native of Etowah County and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Sibert worked on several largescale construction projects over his 40-year military career, including the Panama Canal, the Soo Locks on the Great Lakes and the Hoover Dam. Sibert is known as the “father of the Chemical Corps,” having served as the inaugural commander of Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. In 1923, he returned to Alabama to oversee the $10 million Alabama State Docks project in Mobile. Sibert was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame in 1961.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

William Luther Sibert. (Archive of the U.S. War Department, Wikimedia)

West Point Military Academy. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Gatun Locks, Panama Canal. (J. A. Stewart, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.