Henry Watkins Allen (29 April 1820 – 22 April 1866) was Governor of Louisiana from 25 January 1864 to 2 June 1865, succeeding Thomas Overton Moore and preceding James Madison Wells.
Biography[]
Henry Watkins Allen was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia on 29 April 1820, and he became a teacher and lawyer in Mississippi. Allen headed to the Republic of Texas to fight against Mexico during the 1836 revolution, rising to the rank of Captain in the Texian Army. Allen returned to the United States after the revolution, being elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1846 as a member of the Democratic Party. On 15 August 1861, he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate States Army at the start of the American Civil War, and he was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. He received wounds to both legs during the fighting against the Union at Baton Rouge in Louisiana, and he became a Major-General in the Louisiana Militia. In 1864, he was elected Governor of Louisiana after Thomas Overton Moore left office, and he was considered to be an outlaw as the Union forces flooded into Louisiana. Allen fled to Mexico after the war, dying of a stomach disorder in Mexico City in 1866.