Henry Watkins Allen

Henry Watkins Allen (April 29, 1820 – April 22, 1866) was an American lawyer, planter, soldier, and politician who served as the Governor of Confederate Louisiana. During the Civil War Allen served in the Confederate States Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general. He was later appointed as a military judge after suffering injuries in battle. He was elected to both the Mississippi and Louisiana State Legislatures before he was inaugurated as the 17th Governor of Louisiana, governing from Shreveport, the capital of the Confederate held area of the state.

Henry Watkins Allen was born on April 29, 1820 in Farmville, Virginia into a Presbyterian family, the son of Dr. Thomas and Ann Watkins Allen. His father moved the family to Lexington, Missouri after Ann's death in 1830. While there, Allen worked for a time as a store clerk before he attended Marion College for two years. When he was seventeen, Allen ran away from home to Grand Gulf, Mississippi where he found employment as a teacher on a plantation. He also studied law during this time and was licensed to practice as an attorney in Mississippi on May 25, 1841.

In 1842, Allen moved to the newly independent Republic of Texas, serving briefly in Texan Army. He returned to Mississippi six months later and married Salome Ann Crane. Salome died in 1851 at the age of 25, and she is buried in Bruinsburg, Mississippi. In 1845, he was elected to the Mississippi state legislature where he served one term.

In February 1852, Allen moved to Louisiana and along with William Nolan purchased Westover, a sugar cane plantation located in West Baton Rouge Parish. Three years later in 1855, the land was divided and split, with Nolan keeping the name Westover Plantation on his portion of land and Allen using the name Allendale Plantation for his portion of the property. He owned 125 slaves, expanded his territory to over 2,000 acres, and oversaw the construction of a railway to transport goods.

Allen was elected to the Louisiana legislature in 1853 and that same year, journeyed through the south. Writing about his travels, he published his letters in the Baton Rouge Comet under the pseudonym Guy Mannering. He studied law at Harvard University for a year before making a failed bid for the State Senate in 1855. After hearing about the outbreak of Italian Revolution, he travelled to Europe in 1859, intending to volunteer in the army of Giuseppe Garibaldi. The conflict had ended by the time Allen arrived and he instead toured Europe. He wrote a book about his travel which was published in 1861 as Travels of a Sugar Planter.

During his absence, Allen was re-elected to the state legislature. Although he had entered into politics as a member of the Know Nothing Party, it was around this time that he switched to the Democratic Party. He became a floor leader for the party.

After Abraham Lincolns victory in the 1860 Presidential election and multiple southern states seceding from the United States, Louisiana Governor Thomas Moore authorized a secession convention set for January 1861. In 1860, Allen enlisted as a private in the Delta Rifle Company and was later promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 4th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. Before the secession convention met, Governor Moore ordered the Louisiana militia to seize federal forts and armories throughout the state. Allen took part in the seizure of the Baton Rouge arsenal, the federal fort at Berwick Bay, and was the commander of the garrison of Ship Island.

In early March 1862, he was promoted to colonel and marched to northern Mississippi where he served under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnson. As part of the Army of Mississippi, he moved into Tennessee and fought in the Battle of Shiloh where he was injured after being shot in the face. He was then stationed at Vicksburg where he commanded an ad hoc brigade consisting of elements of the 4th and 5th Louisiana Infantry Regiments. After the fall of New Orleans to Union forces, Major General Mansfield Lowell had ordered three batteries of heavy guns be dismantled and sent to Vicksburg. Allen was tasked with mounting them, but came under fire from the Union Navy during their construction. Allen oversaw the completion of the batteries after drawing his revolver and threatening to personally shoot anyone who abandoned their station.