Henry Watkins Allen Henry Watkins Allen ( April 29 , 1820April 22 , 1866 ) was an American soldier and politician , and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . He served as the 17th Governor of Louisiana late in the war and was the last governor elected under Constitutional law to the post until the end of Reconstruction . Port Allen , a small city on the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge , was named after him in 1878 . Early life and career . Allen was born in Prince Edward County , Virginia , and educated at Marion College , Missouri , taught school and practiced law in Mississippi , and served in the Texas Revolution against Mexico . He was elected as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1846 , after which he studied law at Harvard . He later moved to Louisiana and was elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 1857 . In 1859 he went to Europe with the intention of taking part in the Italian struggle for independence , but arrived too late . He toured through Europe , the incidents of which are recounted in " Travels of a Sugar Planter " . He was elected to the legislature during his absence , and on returning took a prominent part in the business of that body . He had been a Whig in politics , but had joined the Democratic Party when Buchanan was nominated for president in 1856 . Civil War service . Allen joined the Confederate Army as a lieutenant colonel on August 15 , 1861 , and was promoted to colonel on March 1 , 1862 . He was wounded at Shiloh and Baton Rouge . Sarah Morgan met Colonel Allen on November 2 , 1862 , when he was still unable to walk due to his wounds in both legs at the Battle of Baton Rouge . She described him as a " wee little man " with a " pasty face " . Allen became a brigadier general on August 19 , 1863 , and was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1864 , losing office when the Confederacy collapsed in 1865 . As governor , Allen secured legislative passage of a law to prevent illegal impressment by Confederate agents . Another law allowed Allen to purchase medicine and to distribute it to the needy . Disabled soldiers were provided with $ 11 per month . Allen procured the establishment of new hospitals both with public funds and private contributions . Recognizing the lack of manufacturing industry in Louisiana he established a system of state stores , foundries , and factories with the goal this new works would be put to civilian production after the war . Because the lack of medicine was acute in the Confederacy he devoted extensive time and resources toward establishing a large intelligence and covert action service which could secretly procure vital supplies especially medicine such as quinine from behind Union lines in New Orleans or from Mexico . Having established the state ' s military - industrial complex in a short twelve months , state laboratories were soon manufacturing turpentine , castor oil , medicinal alcohol , and carbonate of soda . Allen made arrangement with General Edmund Kirby - Smith to transfer to the state large amounts of cotton and sugar collected by Confederate agents as tax in - kind until the Confederate debt could be retired . He tried to make the state self - sufficient and also guarded the civil liberties of the citizens from infringement by military authorities . Postbellum career . As the Union army forces started flooding into the rest of free Louisiana , Governor Allen was declared an outlaw by military authorities punishable by death upon his capture . Historian John D . Winters writes on Allen ' s exodus from Louisiana as the war ended 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 . The crippled governor then got into his ambulance while a group of friends , tears streaming from their eyes , told him good - by . " With his departure , Louisiana would begin the process of Reconstruction , and would not have another civil elected governor representing the majority of the people until the end of Reconstruction in 1877 . In 1865 , James Madison Wells , Louisiana ' s first reconstruction governor , succeeded Allen . After the war , Allen moved to Mexico City , edited the " Mexico Times " , and wrote " Travels of a Sugar Planter " . He assisted in the opening of trade between Texas and Mexico . He died in Mexico City , of a stomach disorder , and was buried on the grounds in front of the Old Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge . Honors . The Henry Watkins Allen Camp # 133 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is named in his honor as is Allen Parish in western Louisiana . The neighborhood he lived in while in Shreveport bears the name Allendale . Camp # 435 , Sons of Confederate Veterans was chartered in 1903 as the Kirby Smith Camp , but the name was changed prior to 1935 to the Henry Watkins Allen Camp # 435 in honor of Shreveport ' s famous resident . The camp is no longer in existence . Henry W . Allen Elementary School , a public school in New Orleans , is named for him . A statue of Allen by famed sculptor Angela Gregory is located near the West Baton Rouge Parish Courthouse in Port Allen , which was named for him .