Andrew Stewart Herron was born on October 27th, 1823 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was an attorney by profession. A. S. Herron rose to prominence in Baton Rouge as a business and civic leader. Along with two partners, William S. Pike, and J.B. Kleinpeter, he helped establish a branch of the State Bank at Baton Rouge in 1850. As a citizen he was noted for his noble countenance, charity, and affectionate nature.

On January 23, 1861, Herron, along with James O. Fuqua, William S. Pike, and I. Ambrose Williams, were sent as "Cooperationist" delegates to the State Secession Convention. Cooperationists did not necessarily oppose secession, but wanted to wait and see what course of action the other states would take before ratifying an ordinance of secession. The three voted to "refer action of the convention to the people," but the measure was defeated by a 2/3 vote. All three voted for the ordinance of secession on January 26, 1861. Herron was the only one of the three that supported the resolution that outlawed the slave trade. This measure won approval and became part of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.

At the outbreak of the war East Baton Rouge Parish was clearly sympathetic to the Southern cause, with one out of every three males enlisting in the Confederate Army. Andrew Herron, then 36 years old, enlisted in the Baton Rouge Fencibles on June 7, 1861. He was subsequently elected Captain (it was practice in volunteer companies for soldiers to elect their officers). The Baton Rouge Fencibles became Company B of the 7th Louisiana Infantry C.S.A. The 7th Louisiana was a hard fighting unit which performed heroicly at the Battle of First Manassas, during Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and in the major Eastern Theatre battles as part of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

An article in a local newspaper, the "Gazette and Comet" announced the visit of Captain A. S. Herron , "wounded in one of the battles in Virginia," dated June 29, 1862. Captain Herron's visit to Baton Rouge during this time would have involved considerable daring, as Baton Rouge was under Federal occupation beginning on May 29,1862. Before the notice went to print he had already arrived in town (and probably left?). In 1863, as casualty reports from the Battle of Sharpsburg began to filter into Baton Rouge, Sarah Morgan (Dawson) reported in her diary that Major Herron was reportedly killed, but in truth he had been wounded in action. He continued to serve the 7th Infantry through May of 1863 at which time Captain Herron was promoted Colonel of Cavalry and was appointed Assistant Judge of Military Court and assigned to the Staff of Major General Dabney Maury in Mobile.

The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (O.R.) records one case tried in military court in which Captain Herron was Assistant Judge. A Confederate officer, James Clanton was charged with negligence of duty because a peace movement, deemed treasonous, occurred in his Cavalry Command. The troops involved were from North Alabama and East Tennessee , two areas where Confederate sympathy was considered weak. Herron and his colleagues found Clanton innocent of all charges.

In March of 1865, Colonel Herron was charged with the duty of organizing Louisianians and the Battalion of employees at Forts Morgan and Gaines for the defence of Mobile Bay. Booth's Record of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Commands lists "Herron, A. S., Colonel Co--, F. and S., La. and Govt. Employees Regt. La. Appears on roster dated March 1865."

Colonel Herron was elected State Attorney General in 1865. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1882, but died on November 27, 1882, 3 weeks after he was elected. Andrew S. Herron was eulogized in the Capitolian-Advocate newspaper as being of "noble countenance," and possessed of "wise counsel."