Background
Francis Herron was born on February 17, 1837, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, of an old and prominent family, his parents being John and Clarissa (Anderson) Herron.
Francis Herron was born on February 17, 1837, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, of an old and prominent family, his parents being John and Clarissa (Anderson) Herron.
Francis entered the Western University of Pennsylvania (later the University of Pittsburgh) but left at sixteen to work in a bank.
In 1855, seeking the business opportunity of the West, Francis Herron went to Dubuque, Iowa, where he and three brothers established a bank. His military interest developed early, and in 1859 he helped to organize an independent company known as the “Governor’s Grays. ” This company, with himself in command, Herron offered to Lincoln as early as January 1861 and in the following April it became a unit of the 16t Iowa Regiment. After hard service with Lyon in Missouri through the disastrous reverse at Wilson’s Creek, it was mustered out in August 1861. Herron acquitted himself so well that, in the following month, he was named lieutenant-colonel in the 9th Iowa. This regiment was in the thick of the Arkansas campaign, and at Pea Ridge Herron in a hand-to- hand encounter was wounded and taken prisoner. For his conduct on this occasion he was promoted, July 1862, to brigadier-general.
In his first command the young general achieved his outstanding personal success in December 1862 at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where after a spectacular march he saved Blunt’s command and turned apparent defeat into decisive victory. It was a choice, he wrote to a friend, of risking an immediate attack against great odds or retreating and losing his supplies. The battle was of such consequence in the conquest of Arkansas that it won for the commander the highest reward, and Herron, after barely eighteen months in active service, was accorded a major-generalship, dating from November 29, 1862. With Grant at Vicksburg in 1863 Herron commanded the left division and was one of the three generals selected to take possession of the city. Transferred to the Department of the Gulf he took part in an international crisis by timely aid to President Juarez of Mexico. In February 1865 he assumed command of the northern district of Louisiana; he resigned the following June.
After the war, like many other Union officers, Herron remained in the South to practise law and engage in politics. He was not successful in any connection. His investments resulted disastrously and his participation in Louisiana Reconstruction politics did not add to his fame. He was United States marshal, 1867-1869, and for about a year, 1871-1872, by designation of the notorious Governor Warmoth, he was de facto secretary of state. In 1877 he removed to New York City where he was connected with a manufacturing establishment until his death.
Francis Herron was married to Adelaide Wibray Flash.