Henry Watkins Allen
In February 1852, Henry Watkins Allen and William Nolan purchased the Westover Plantation in southern Louisiana.Allen enlisted as a private in the 4th Louisiana Infantry Regiment but was quickly promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 15, 1861.[8] Colonel Allen met Sarah Morgan on November 2, 1862, when he was still unable to walk due to receiving wounds in both legs at the Battle of Baton Rouge.[10] He agreed to run and was elected governor of the portions of Louisiana still under Confederate control, taking office in January 1864; his tenure ended with the Confederacy's collapse in the spring of 1865.[12][13] As the Union army forces started taking over Confederate Louisiana, military authorities declared Governor Allen an outlaw, punishable by death upon his capture.Historian John D. Winters, known for romanticizing the Confederacy and denigrating African Americans, wrote about Allen's leaving Louisiana to take refuge in Mexico: "Before leaving he addressed a long letter to the people of Louisiana begging them to keep the peace and 'submit to the inevitable' and 'begin life anew' without whining or despair.In 1885, 19 years after his death, Allen's remains were reinterred on the grounds in front of the Old Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, in a grave marked by a rose-colored obelisk.A bust of Allen, along with Lee, Jackson and Beauregard, is located on the Confederate memorial in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport.