JAMES W. ALLEN, OF BEDFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA ; COLONEL, 2D REGIMENT VIRGINIA VOLUNTEERS, "STONEWALL BRIGADE"
The subject of our memoir, James Walkinshaw Allen, was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, July 2, 1829, and was eldest son of the Hon. Robert Allen, who represented that district in Congress.
In 1839, Robert Allen and family moved to Bedford County, Virginia, James at that time being ten years old. For the next four years he was sent to a school in the neighborhood, and the three following to New London Academy. While on a visit home from New London he had the misfortune to lose his right eye, from a wound received from the fragment of a percussion-cap. From New London Academy he went to the Virginia Military Institute, in 1846, being then just seventeen, and in 1849, when twenty, he graduated with distinction.
In 1851, we find him teaching a large classical school at Piedmont Institute, in Liberty, resigning this place for an appointment as Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Virginia Military Institute in 1852, and returning home in 1855 to take charge of his father's farm. He married in February, 1856, Miss Julia A. Pendleton, of Jefferson County, Virginia, and the following year moved to a farm he had purchased near Summit Point, in Jefferson County, Va., where he lived quietly farming whilst the great political storm was brewing, prior to the outburst in 1861. In politics he was, at that time, a Union man.
Soon after the John Brown raid upon Harper's Ferry, in 1859, the volunteer companies of Jefferson, Berkeley, and Clarke formed themselves into a regiment, of which James W. Allen, although comparatively a stranger to all, and not a candidate, being absent from the meeting, was elected colonel. This regiment was numbered as the 1st until the first year of the war, when its number was changed to the 2d, the volunteer regiment from Richmond being put as the 1st. When it was determined, early in 1 861, to seize the arms and armory at Harper's Ferry, orders were sent Colonel Allen by the militia general of the district, from Staunton, to assemble his regiment and march to a point near the Ferry, and there await further orders. Hearing nothing further, Colonel Allen sent his quartermaster to Winchester to get instructions. After much needless delay the general was gotten as far as Charlestown, where he insisted on stopping a short while. The quartermaster waited at the door in the carriage an hour or more, and then received a message from the general saying he was too much exhausted to proceed that night, but to tell Colonel Allen to do whatever he thought best under the circumstances.
Upon the receipt of this message Colonel Allen marched upon the village at once. Not soon enough, however, to prevent the loss of a great deal of war material, machinery for the manufacture of arms, and arms, but in time to save a vast deal, which was afterwards used with great success during our protracted struggle. All this material could have been saved but for these needless delays in sending forward the necessary orders.
Soon after this, General T.J. Jackson, then a colonel, was sent to take command of the troops at Harper's Ferry, and there formed the celebrated "Stonewall Brigade." Very soon after the organization of the brigade, the 2d Regiment became conspicuous for its discipline, and was acknowledged to be the best-drilled regiment in the Valley.
At the first battle of Manassas, when the brigade was drawn up in line of battle, and just before the order to advance was given, Colonel Allen was totally deprived of sight by being struck, in his only remaining eye, by a limb of a pine cut off by a shell. His regiment, being deprived of its commander at this crisis, was for a time disorganized, and its commander was afterwards subject to unjust aspersion, which subsequent events wholly removed. The brigade returned with General Jackson to the Valley in the winter of 1861, and the next we heard about the 2d and its commander was in the memorable battle of Kernstown, Sunday, March 23, 1862, where Jackson with a handful of men fought odds of four to one all day, and retired when night came without being pursued, leaving the enemy so shattered that they were unable to move for some days. We only quote the account of the battle as regards this regiment. It says, —
"Where all acted so gallantly and fought so bravely it is hard to particularize, but a few instances deserve especial mention. It is needless to say General Jackson acted bravely ; he was in the thickest of the fight, and exposed to every danger. A braver man God never made.
"Colonel Allen, of the 2d Virginia, distinguished himself Three times the flag of the 2d Virginia was shot down and the staff shot away. Colonel Allen, the masses of the enemy close upon him, jumped from his horse and carried the colors from the field."
Colonel Allen was with General Jackson in all his movements in the celebrated campaign against Fremont, Banks, and Milroy, prior to the seven days' fight around Richmond, and when Banks was driven through Winchester, the 2d Regiment had the advance along Main Street. Just as the head of the regiment got opposite Taylor's Hotel, General Jackson rode up, pressing, as he was accustomed to, eagerly forward. The rear of the enemy being about two hundred yards off, ascending the hill. Colonel Allen urged the general to pause an instant, as he thought the rear were about to deliver their fire. This he did. A moment afterwards a volley swept the street, with no harm to the general.
In June, 1862, we find all eyes turned towards Richmond. McClellan had gradually drawn near the devoted city, and the fast-approaching struggle would decide its fate, and with it, it was thought, the fate of our young Confederacy.
Quietly General Jackson with his whole command steals from the Valley, and on the 26th of June we find him near Richmond, ready on the 27th to strike McClellan's right, the blow at Gaines's Mill, by which his line was broken, without our own men at Richmond even knowing of his arrival.
The following description of the attack on the fortifications at Gaines's Mill, and the final carrying of them by the "Stonewall Brigade," is given by a distinguished Confederate general who was an eye-witness of this attack in which Colonel Allen was killed. He says, —
"I soon observed a Confederate brigade issue from the woods into the field, about half a mile wide, which was in front of the works, for the purpose of charging the enemy's breastworks, which were flanked by heavy batteries. As soon as the brigade made its appearance the batteries opened a heavy fire, which the brigade disregarded until it reached the middle of the field. Here the fire became so severe that the brigade was forced to retreat. After a short interval it revived the attack and again was compelled by the heavy fire to retire. After a second pause a third attempt was made, and, as I supposed, by the same brigade, but afterwards I was corrected in this by General Jackson's adjutant-general, who said the first two attacks were made by a North Carolina brigade, and the third by a Georgia brigade. This failed also, in consequence of the withering fire. I now thought the battle lost, and with it the Confederate cause. But after another short delay, the same brigade, as I supposed, but which the adjutant-general assured me was the 'Stonewall Brigade/ rushed out of the woods. And, although the fire from the batteries was as terrible as before, there was not a moment's pause or hesitation along the whole line ; it never faltered an instant, but pressed on until the works were carried, the batteries captured, and the enemy's line broken." This was the turning-point of the battle, and here McClellan received a blow from which he never recovered.
In this glorious charge of the immortal "Stonewall Brigade," up near the enemy's works. Colonel James W. Allen, leading his command, sealed his patriotism to his State and his devotion to a just cause with his life's blood. Could a more glorious death be desired ?
From the " Richmond Enquirer" of the 29th we get the following :
"Among the killed in the desperate fight of Friday afternoon was Colonel James W. Allen, of the 2d Regiment Virginia Volunteers. He was shot through the head, and expired almost instantly. At the time he received the fatal shot he was acting brigadier-general of Jackson's 'Stonewall Brigade.' His body was brought to this city yesterday morning, and during the day was deposited at Hollywood Cemetery."
Since then his remains have been removed to the cemetery at Liberty, Virginia, near his old home, and the beautiful Peaks of Otter he knew and loved so well.
His commission had been made out as brigadier-general, but had not been forwarded to him. His widow survived him only two years, and left an only son.
Colonel Allen was six feet three inches in height, of commanding presence, of graceful, soldierly carriage, handsome, and of most pleasant address. With all who knew him he was popular, beloved, and respected. At the time of his death he was thirty-three years old within a few days.
This memoir can be no more appropriately closed than by quoting General Winder's official report of the battle of Gaines's Mill. He says, —
"The 2d and 5th Regiments of Virginia Volunteers moved so rapidly they got in advance of the line, receiving a heavy fire, which thinned their ranks, depriving them of some of their best officers. Nothing daunted, they held their ground until the line came up, and moved on with the same impetuosity and determination as before. Here that gallant officer. Colonel James W. Allen, 2d Regiment, fell mortally wounded whilst leading his command in the charge.
He was a true soldier and gentleman, whose loss to his regiment, country, and friends will be long mourned, though falling in so sacred a cause. His patriotism and noble character had endeared him to all. "
He sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, Proudly and peacefully.
