Background
Robert Allen was born in July 1812 in Ohio, United States. No record of his family can be found.
Robert Allen was born in July 1812 in Ohio, United States. No record of his family can be found.
Allen was educated in the public schools and graduated from West Point in 1836.
Allen was commissioned in the 2nd Artillery, and served with it in the Florida War and elsewhere for some years. In 1846, he accepted appointment as captain and assistant quartermaster. In the Mexican War he was at first on duty as a quartermaster with General Taylor's army. He was transferred to General Scott's in time to be present at the siege of Vera Cruz, and served with it until after the capture of the City of Mexico. From then until the Civil War his service was chiefly on the Pacific coast, as treasurer of the military government of California and as chief quartermaster of the military command.
In 1861 he was promoted major and sent to St. Louis as chief quartermaster of the department. In the early days of any war of the United States, habitually unprepared as it is, the task of the quartermaster's department is a herculean one. Allen's situation would have been difficult at best, but it was rendered doubly so by the aberrations of General Frémont, the department commander, whose administration took no account of law, regulations, or the state of the treasury. Allen had no choice but to carry out the orders of his chief, but wrote in October, "If the reckless expenditures in this department are not checked by a stronger arm than mine, the Quartermaster's Department will be wrecked in Missouri alone. " Nevertheless, he survived the ordeal, brought order out of chaos, and continued throughout the war to act as the chief quartermaster for the armies in the west.
He was given temporary rank as colonel in 1862, and appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, May 23, 1863. With headquarters first at St. Louis and later at Louisville, he provided stores and transportation for the operations against Donelson and Corinth, for the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns, and for many other expeditions from eastern Tennessee westward to New Mexico.
He became colonel in the regular army in 1866, and until his retirement from active service in 1878 was stationed in Washington and San Francisco. He then traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. He died in Geneva.
Allen efficiently performed his tasks. General Meigs said of him that "no more faithful or more able officer is in the service of the Government. "
Presumably, Allen never married.
