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Harris Flanagin was born on November 3, 1817 in Roadstown, New Jersey. His grandfather had emigrated from Ireland in 1765 and his father was a cabinetmaker and merchant. The young Flanagin attended a Quaker school in New Jersey. He became a professor of Mathematics at Clermont Seminary in Frankfort, Pennsylvania while only eighteen. The next year he moved to Illinois where he studied law. In 1839 the young lawyer moved to Arkansas and settled in Arkadelphia when it became the county seat of Clark County in 1842. By the early 1850s Flanagin owned 2,720 acres, thirteen town lots, a house, six slaves, and $1,500 worth of furniture.
Flanagin served as a secessionist delegate to the Secession Convention and enlisted when hostilities commenced. As a captain in the Second Arkansas Mounted Rifles, he fought at Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. When his unit's regimental commander was killed at the latter battle, Flanagin was elected colonel. After Pea Ridge his unit was transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where he was serving when he was informed that he had been elected Governor of Arkansas. It was a startling testimony to incumbent governor Henry Rector's unpopularity that he was defeated by a virtual unknown, a man who had never held high office, who never campaigned, and who wasn't even in the state at the time.
Confederate fortunes were already in decline when Flanagin took office. By September of 1863 his government was forced to abandon Little Rock and retreat to Washington in Hempstead County. Though Flanagin attempted to cooperate with Confederate authorities, lack of funds and real power rendered his government increasingly irrelevant. By the time the end of the war, he was reduced to signing pardons for soldiers and civilians charged with wartime violations.
After the war Flanagin worked to rebuild his law practice and was said to have damaged his health in the process. He was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1872 and to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention in 1874. Flanagin died, however, before he was able to ratify the final draft of the constitution.
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