Henry Watkins Allen - Postbellum Career

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.