Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls served two terms as Governor of Louisiana after Reconstruction.

Nicholls was born on August 20, 1834 in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1855, but resigned his commission one year later. He then attended the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University) and practiced law in Napoleonville, Louisiana until the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Nicholls joined the Confederate States Army in 1861, participating in the First Battle of Bull Run and in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign . In May of 1862, Nicholls was wounded at the Battle of Winchester in Virginia, losing his left arm. On October 14, 1862, Nicholls was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. During the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, a shell ripped off Nicholl's left foot. Nicholls was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department to direct the Volunteer and Conscript Bureau until the end of the war.

After the war, Nicholls returned to practicing law. In 1876, he ran for governor against Stephen B. Packard. The election became disputed as both men claimed victory. As part of the compromise to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes recognized Nicholls as the winner.

Nicholls believed in having less government through lower taxes and fewer official functions. He also wanted to limit the involvment of blacks in the political processes of the state. During his first term, he battled political corruption, taking on the State Treasurer Edward Burke, the operator of the convict lease system Samuel Jones, and Lieutenant Governor Louis A. Wiltz who supported the corrupt Louisiana Lottery.

Nicholls chaired the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1879, and moved the state capitol back to Baton Rouge from New Orleans. Nicholls served two terms as governor - from 1877 until 1880, and again from 1888 through 1892.

After serving as governor, Nicholls became Chief Justice of the Louisiana State Supreme Court in 1892, a post which he held until 1911. Francis Nicholls died in Thibodeaux, Louisiana on January 4, 1912.

External links

• Biography from the Louisiana Secretary of State
• Biography from History Central
• Nicholls State University