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Civil War Soldiers - Herron
| Herron, Francis J., major-general,
U.S. Army, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., Feb. 17, 1837, was educated at
the Western University of Pennsylvania and moved west, becoming a
merchant in Dubuque, Ia., where he organized and became captain of the
"Governor's Greys" in 1861. He entered the volunteer service in April,
1861, as captain in the 1st Iowa regiment, and commanded his company
at Dug springs, Ozark and Wilson's creek, and in Sept., 1861, was made
lieutenant-colonel of the 9th Iowa regiment, which he commanded in the
campaign of Gen. S. R. Curtis in 1862, in Missouri, Arkansas and the
Indian territory. For gallantry at Pea ridge, where he was wounded and
taken prisoner, he was promoted brigadier- general, July 16, 1862, and
he commanded the army of the frontier in its forced march of 114 miles
in three days to relieve Gen. James G. Blunt at Prairie Grove,
fighting in the battle of Dec. 7 and winning by this action promotion
to major-general of volunteers. Subsequently Gen. Herron captured Van
Buren, Ark., was in command of the left wing of the investing forces
at Vicksburg and of the combined forces of army and navy that invested
and captured Yazoo City, and was with Capt. John G. Walker on board
the U. S. gunboat "De Kalb" when that vessel was blown up by a
torpedo. He was then in command of the 13th army corps on the Texas
coast, where, with headquarters at Brownsville, he prevented the
smuggling of cotton into Mexico across the Rio Grande, and as
confidential agent of the state department aided President Juarez in
preventing French troops establishing posts on the frontier. Being
transferred to Baton Rouge, La., in March, 1865, as commander of the
northern division of the state, he co-operated with Gen. Canby in his
operations against Mobile, and subsequently against Gen. Richard
Taylor, and in May, 1865, he negotiated and received the formal
surrender of the Trans-Mississippi army including all the forces west
of the Mississippi river. He was appointed in July, 1865, a
commissioner to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes, which
commission, as well as that of major- general of volunteers, he
resigned in August. He then practised law in New Orleans, was United
States marshal of the district of Louisiana from 1867-69, secretary of
state of Louisiana in 1872- 73, and then took up his residence in New
York, where he practised his profession and became a prominent member
of the G. A. R. and the Loyal Legion. Gen. Herron died Jan. 8, 1902.
Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
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