William Henry Allen was a pretty impressive Naval officer.
He was born in Providence, Rhode Island on October 21, 1784 (three
years after the Battle of Yorktown). His father had been a general
during the Revolution. He first served as a midshipman in the Navy
under Captain Bainbridge and later was assigned to the famous Chesapeake.
Readers may recall that the Chesapeake was the ship that was stopped
by the British ship Leopard in 1807 and ordered to give up sailors
who the British claimed were deserters from the Royal Navy. The American
vessel fired only one shot, that by Lieutenant Allen, while British
fire killed three and injured eighteen. Lt. Allen later led a movement
to have the Chesapeake’s commanding officer, Commodore Barron,
arrested for cowardice.
James Tertius De Kay, a local naval historian and the author of
A Rage for Glory, a biography of Stephen Decatur, notes that Allen
was assigned to Decatur’s command, the frigate United States,
and directed fire against HMS Macedonian during the War of 1812,
shelling so accurate that the British frigate was forced to surrender,
and Allen was put in command of the prize crew. He brought the ship
into New York harbor where a ciy street ws named in his honor.
Later in the war, Allen was put in command of the sloop Argus
which in its career, captured 27 British ships, many in the English
Channel.
|
In August 1813 Argus engaged HMS Pelican and was defeated,
an event that cost the captain not only his ship, but his leg and
eventually his life. Ironically, his brief successor in command
was also named William H. Allen. Providence-born Allen died many
miles from home in a British hospital, in Plymouth on August 18,
1813.
From: this page
Allen Street is one of five streets in this area which were named
after military heroes of the War of 1812. In one grand municipal
gesture of honor, Allen Street was so named after William H Allen
of the Navy;
Lieutenantcolonel John Chrystie, killed on the Niagara frontier;
Lieutenant colonel Forsyth of the Rifles, wounded in Canada in the
same year;
Lieutenant Eldridge, scalped in Canada; Lieutenant William H. Allen,
wounded in the action between the Argus and H.B.M.S. Pelican;
Lieutenant Ludlow, killed in the engagement between the Chesapeake
and H.B.M.S. Shannon.
Pike Street perpetuates the name of General Pike, killed in the
attack upon York (Toronto), Canada -- all in the same year of 1813.
more about Wiliam H Allen can be found here and here
|
