Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charles Julius Allen (1840-1915) and Grace Elizabeth Allen (1886-1976), father and daughter, span the years 1865-1976 and consist of correspondence, diaries, family histories, personal reminiscences, notes, clippings, and printed matter.
Charles Allen, a brigadier general on his retirement, spent much of his life in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. His papers contain correspondence and other items from his Civil War service, plus later material that he retained and collected as part of an unpublished Allen family history. Included are personal reminiscences of Allen’s life in the military, especially as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, as an engineer in the army corps of engineers, and during the Civil War at Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 1864, and in the Mobile Campaign, March-April 1865.
The papers of Grace Allen consist mainly of diaries started by her parents in her infancy and kept throughout her life. They include references to her service with the American Red Cross, to Washington, D.C., and New York social life, including observations about Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to her world travels, and to various world, national, and local affairs. Also included are letters from George S. Patton (1885-1945), with whom the Allen family had a long association, written during World War II.