[1] His father, Robert Herbert Conner, was a soldier in the Confederate States Army who was wounded several times during the American Civil War.

Despite possessing a "towering intellect", his "overall academic record at West Point was only slightly better than average", [3] which resulted in him graduating in 1898 ranked 17th of 59 students.

After brief assignments in Huntsville, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia, he was sent to Cuba in January 1899 to serve with the United States occupation force following the Spanish–American War.

[10] In June, Conner was selected by Major General John J. Pershing to be a member of the operations section (G3) for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) staff in France.

[8] In November Conner was selected as Pershing's Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations (G3); his subordinates included John McAuley Palmer and George C. Marshall.

[8][11] After the Armistice was signed in November, Conner was assigned to the Army General Staff in Washington and was promoted to permanent colonel on August 22, 1919.

During the hearings, Conner drew heavy criticism from Congressman Oscar E. Bland and was named by Brigadier General John H. Sherburne, of the Massachusetts National Guard and the former commander of the artillery of the African American 92nd Division, as the individual most responsible for not stopping a scheduled attack by the 92nd Division of Lieutenant General Robert Lee Bullard's Second Army.

[14] The panel members rejected Sherburne's assertion and the final report of the subcommittee held no one person accountable for the losses.

As Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the Operations Section, General Conner has shown a masterful conception of all the tactical situations which have confronted the American forces in Europe.

By his high professional attainments and sound military judgment he has handled with marked skill the many details of the complex problems of organization and troop movements that were necessitated by the various operations of the American Expeditionary Forces.

'[20]Conner pulled strings to get his protégé admitted to the U.S. Army Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Eisenhower graduated first in his class thanks in no small part to his comprehensive Panamanian tutelage, in addition to the class notes Eisenhower received from Patton, who had attended the school earlier.

"[21] Conner left Panama in late 1924 to assume his duties in Washington as the Army's Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics (G-4), which started on December 1, 1924.

[12] Conner was Pershing's preference for Army Chief of Staff in 1930, but was passed over in favor of Major General Douglas MacArthur.

On March 12, 1936, The [Calhoun County] Monitor-Herald published a "Biographical Sketch of General Fox Conner" written by Louise Ligon, which includes this assignment:"When President Roosevelt, in April 1933, instituted his Civilian Conservation Corps, he assigned to General Conner the tremendous task of mobilizing approximately 24,000 young men and World War veterans for the 125 companies in the six New England states.

This was the largest contingent ever mobilized during peace times, but the momentous task of building the 125 camps with 500 barracks from Connecticut to Maine, and across the Berkshire Hills to Lake Champlain, was carried out promptly as scheduled.

[23] Conner's lasting legacy was as a role model and inspiration to World War II high commanders including Marshall, Eisenhower, and Patton.

[26] They had three children: daughter Betty Virginia Vida (1903–2000), the wife of Colonel Frank Joseph Vida (1894–1970); son Fox Brandreth (1905–2000), a 1927 graduate of West Point who served as an army lieutenant before pursuing a business career as president of the Brandreth family business, the Allcock Manufacturing Company, a maker of humane animal traps; and daughter Florence Slocum Gans (1910–1964), the wife of Colonel Edgar A. Gans (1902–1965).