General Notes

[coosa1.ged]
THE CHRONICLE
From Our Correspondents
"F. M. Allen, of McCord beat, was in town Monday and reports, favorablely
on crops and other conditions in his neighborhood.  Mr. Allen is among
the substainial citizens and successful farmers of the locality, having
live there for over sixty years. (1)
(1) The Chronicle, From Our Correspondents, 9 Sep 1910, p. 5. Printed in
Rockford, Coosa Co., AL. Micro Film: Located in the Alabama Archives and
History, Montgomery, AL.
Francis Marion Allen was born on 20 Nov 1840, in Putnam County,
Georgia, to Peter Early Allen and Permelia A. Jones.  He was probably
named after the famous American Revolutionary War hero and politican from
South Carolina, Francis Marion, who was known by the British army as the
"Swamp Fox" due to his cunning ability to elude capture and escape the
enemy..
His family left Putnam County, Georgia, and moved to Chambers County,
Alabama, prior to 1850.  Why did they move to Chambers County?  During
this period of time, there was a gold strike in Chambers County. Maybe
this is why they moved.  Possibly , they moved to find new land to farm.
Whatever the reasons, the whole clan moved including his grandfather,
Green Berry Allen and his father, Peter Early Allen.  In the late 1850s,
they moved to Rockford, Coosa County, Alabama.  Here, Green Berry Allen
received land grants from the United States government for fighting in
the War of 1812, and after getting the land, they resumed farming as
their occupation.  This can be documented thru US Census records of Coosa
County, Alabama.
Francis Marion Allen was a young man of 20 years when rumors of war
and secession began spreading across the south.  War was on the horizon.
In December of 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln as President
of the United States, South Carolina seceded from the Union.  During the
next two months, ordinances of secession were adopted by the states of
Mississippi, Flordia, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.  In
February of 1861, the seceding states sent representatives to a
convention in Montogomery, Alabama. The convention adopted a provisional
constitution and chose Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as its provisional
President.  The Confederate States of America was born.
In Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address on March 4, 1861, he rejected
the right of secession but attempted to conciliate the South.
Negotiations for the relief of Ft. Sumter failed, and on April 12, 1861,
the bombardment of the fort began.  Three days later, Lincoln announced
that an insurrection had occured and called for volunteers.  This
resulted in the secession of Virginia in April followed by Arkansas,
Tennessee, and North Carolina in May, increasing the number of seceding
states to eleven.  On April 15, 1861, the United States of America
declared war on the Confederate States of America.  For the next four
years, Francis Marion Allen's life would change.
As with most men in the South, young and old, Francis Marion Allen
stood up to be counted.  No one expected the war to last four years.  He
enlisted as a Private in Co. D, of the 18th Alabama Regiment, on July 1,
1861, at Wetumpka, Elmore County, Alabama.  The men in Co. D of this
regiment were from Coosa County.  This regiment was at Shiloh (1862),
Chicamauga (1863), Chattanooga (1863), and the campaign to save Atlanta
(1864).
On January 1, 1864, Allen was promoted to 1st Corporal.  In May of
1864, Major General Sherman pursued Lt. General Joseph Johnston to the
area of Dallas, Georgia, to find the Confederates strongly entrenched on
wooded ridges between the town and a Methodist chapel to the north called
New Hope Church.  Here the two armies slugged it out in three battles.
Flailing through the dense stands of pine, the attacking "Yankees" were
cut to pieces and would later refer to this area as the "Hell Hole".  It
was during this battle that F