Francis J. Herron

Francis J. Herron during the Civil War

Francis Jay Herron (born February 17, 1837 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † January 8, 1902 in New York City ) was a general of the Northern States in the Civil War . He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his services in the Battle of Pea Ridge .

Life

Before the civil war

Herron was born in Pittsburgh on February 17, 1837. Both his father and mother came from families that had long lived in Pennsylvania. He attended what is now the University of Pittsburgh , but left it at the age of 16 without a degree. He then worked as a banker and moved to Dubuque in 1855 , where he and his brothers established a bank. Herron was also involved in the local militia and, as a captain, became the commander of a company.

Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge

Herron's militia company volunteered for military service back in January 1861 and eventually became part of the 1st Iowa Infantry Regiment in April. As part of General Nathaniel Lyon's army, the regiment took part in the battle of Wilson's Creek . In the battle, which ended in the defeat of the northern states, Herron was knocked down by a grenade but was unharmed. Samuel Davis Sturgis , who had taken command for the fallen Lyon, praised Herron in his official report on the battle. The three-month service of the 1st Iowa Regiment expired on August 21, 1861 and Herron was retired. A few weeks later, however, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of a new Iowa regiment. With his new regiment, Herron took part in the Battle of Pea Ridge under General Samuel Ryan Curtis . While fending off a Confederate attack, Herron was seriously wounded and captured by the Confederates. For his services in battle, he was promoted to Brigadier General of the Volunteer Army and received the Medal of Honor after the war . Herron's imprisonment was short-lived, on March 20, 1862, he was exchanged.

Prairie Grove

Herron was first appointed to a post in St. Louis in the summer of 1862, but after a few weeks he took over a division in the Army of the Frontier . With this Herron operated under General John McAllister Schofield in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. Herron is described as tall and slim at the time and was popular with his soldiers and officers.

General map of northwest Arkansas and adjacent areas at the time of the Civil War. Herron's column marched from Springfield, Missouri, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, a distance of more than a hundred miles in four days.

At the beginning of November the Frontier Army was split in two. One division under General James G. Blunt bivouacked twenty miles southwest of Fayetteville, while Schofield's other two divisions (about 6,000 men with 22 guns) were near Springfield, more than a hundred miles from Blunt. Schofield himself was sick. Blunt was therefore nominally in command of the entire Frontier Army, and Herron commanded the two divisions at Springfield. The commander of the Confederate Forces in Arkansas, General Hindman , wanted to take advantage of this spatial separation and beat the Union forces separately. Blunt called on Herron for help, and Herron and his troops marched south in a hurry. In freezing cold and on bad roads, the Northerners covered more than a hundred miles between December 3rd and 6th. At midnight on December 6th they reached Fayetteville, only twenty miles from Blunt. One officer involved later wrote that this was "the greatest march that any force carried out during the war of rebellion". Hindman had meanwhile reached Blunt's front, but now changed his plan: Instead of attacking Blunt, he marched north and stood in Herron's path on December 7, 1862 at the Battle of Prairie Grove . Herron wanted to fight his way to Blunt and attacked Hindman's forces, but neither side could gain an advantage. In the meantime, however, Blunt had marched to Herron's support and arrived on the battlefield in the late afternoon. Because of the unification, Hindman's plan had failed and he withdrew south the next day. This victory secured Northern Arkansas for the Union.

In recognition of his services in the Prairie Grove campaign, Herron was promoted to Major General of the Volunteer Army on March 10, 1863 , with rank date of November 29, 1862. He initially stayed in Missouri and continued to command a division of the Frontier Army and from March 30 1863 the whole army.

Vicksburg and Texas

Despite the victory at Prairie Grove, there was a dispute between General Schofield and his two subordinates Blunt and Herron after the battle. On the one hand, it was about the evaluation of the campaign and the role of the three participants, but also about political differences: Schofield was politically more conservative and against the abolition of slavery , while Blunt and Herron belonged more to the group of radical abolitionists . In the short term, the dispute was resolved by Schofield's transfer to the Cumberland Army . On May 13, 1863, however, he returned as the new commander of the Missouri Defense Division. Herron refused to serve under Schofield and was transferred to Ulysses S. Grant's Tennessee Army . Under Grant, Herron commanded a division in the XIII. Corps and took part in the final weeks of the Second Vicksburg Campaign .

Herron and his division were later transferred to the defense area of ​​golf and took part in General Banks' Texas expedition until September . After a sick leave, Herron returned to Texas and stayed there until the summer of 1864. He then commanded various districts in Louisiana and retired in June 1865 from the service.

After the war

After the war, Herron settled in the south and initially worked as a lawyer in New Orleans . Together with Whitelaw Reid , he also tried his hand at planting, albeit with little success. Before 1870 he married the widow Adelaide Flash, who brought three daughters into the marriage. Herron served as the United States Marshal for Louisiana from 1867 to 1869, and briefly as Secretary of State of Louisiana in the early 1870s . In 1877 he moved back north and settled in New York . There is uncertainty about his living conditions in his final years. Herron worked in New York either as a lawyer or in an industrial company and possibly again in banking. According to his death certificate, he went in 1902 no longer work after and lived in a "tenement house" ( tenement ). This has led to the interpretation that Herron died impoverished. On the other hand, Herron listed his profession as a banker in the 1900 census, and his apartment was still referred to as an "apartment" in 1880, 1890 and 1900 and was located near Broadway and Central Park . Herron died on January 8, 1902.

literature

• Dennis Black. 2006. Courage and Conduct: Francis J. Herron. Iowa Heritage Illustrated 87: 50-63. Available online at ir.uiowa.edu
• Thomas W. Cutrer. 2017. Theater of a Separate War - The Civil War West of the Mississippi River. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
• John H. Eicher, David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands . Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Gretchen Carlson. 1930. Francis Jay Herron. In: The Palimpsest 11.4, pp. 141-150. Available online at ir.uiowa.edu .
• Bobby Roberts. 2014. Francis Jay Herron (1837-1902) . Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Online .
• William L. Shea. 2009. Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7 .

Web links

Commons : Francis J. Herron  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

1. ^ Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , p. 141
2. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 24
3. ↑ ^{a b} Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 228
4. ^ Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , p. 142
5. ↑ Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , pp. 142f., Pp. 145f.
6. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 24
7. ^ Eicher and Eicher: Civil War High Commands , p. 294
8. ^ Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , pp. 147f.
9. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 24
10. ↑ Shelby Foote. 1986. The Civil War - A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian . First vintage edition. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 47f.
11. ↑ Shelby Foote. 1986. The Civil War - A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian . First vintage edition. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 48f., Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 128
12. ↑ cited in Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 128f.
13. ^ Eicher and Eicher: Civil War High Commands , p. 295
14. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 156f., P. 476
15. ^ Eicher and Eicher, Civil War High Commands , pp. 294f., Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229
16. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 287, 290
17. ↑ Black, Courage and Conduct , p. 55
18. ^ Eicher and Eicher, Civil War High Commands , p. 295
19. ^ Black, Courage and Conduct , p. 57
20. ^ Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229, Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , p. 150. Warner lists his tenure as Secretary of State as 1871-2, Carlson as 1872-73.
21. ^ Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229
22. ^ Carlson, Francis Jay Herron , p. 150
23. ^ Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229
24. ↑ Roberts, Francis Jay Herron
25. ^ Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229
26. ^ Warner, Generals in Blue , p. 229; Roberts, Francis Jay Herron
27. ↑ Black, Courage and Conduct , pp. 60f.