William Wirt Howe

{{Short description|American judge (1833–1909)}}

William Wirt Howe (November 24, 1833 – March 17, 1909) was a justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from November 1, 1868, to December 3, 1872.{{cite web|url=http://www.lasc.org/Bicentennial/justices/Howe_William_Wirt.aspx|title=William Wirt Howe|publisher=Louisiana Supreme Court|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609025215/http://www.lasc.org/Bicentennial/justices/Howe_William_Wirt.aspx|access-date=May 15, 2020|archive-date=2019-06-09}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lasc.org/Bicentennial/justices.aspx|title=Louisiana Supreme Court Justices, 1813-Present|publisher=Louisiana Supreme Court|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608080334/http://www.lasc.org/Bicentennial/justices.aspx|access-date=May 16, 2020|archive-date=2019-06-08}}

Born in Canandaigua, New York,Celebration of the Centenary of the Supreme Court of Louisiana (March 1, 1913), in John Wymond, Henry Plauché Dart, eds., The Louisiana Historical Quarterly (1922), p. 121. Howe graduated from Hamilton College and served as in the United States Army during the American Civil War, achieving the rank of major. He served for one year as president of the American Bar Association, and published a treatise, Studies in Civil Law. He was a judge of the Criminal District Court in 1868, which he resigned to become associate justice. He served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1905 to 1909.

He died in New Orleans at the age of 75.