Hendricks - Allen - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Source: Crawfordsville Journal Saturday, May 9, 1925

(Transcribed by Marilyn Hendricks verbatim, spelling as  printed)

With the passing of Allen Hendricks, the sixth instant at the  National Military Home D.V.S., Danville branch, another of the  few survivors of Lew Wallace's zuave regiment, the 11 th Indiana  Vols., has gone to his reGrand Army of the Republic (GAR)d and  joined the ranks of comrades long since bivouaced on fames  eternal camping ground. Allen Hendricks, defender of the Union in  the three months service and later a veteran in the three year  service was continuously employed as private soldier from April  22 nd, 1860, to August 4 th, 1865. With others of his metal in  heroic sacrifice and soldierly quality, obedience to duty and  military mandate in the ranks, rested the fame and prestige of  Wallace, McGinnis, McCauley and others of conspicous military and  civic reputation.

With his regiment recruited from time to time, under different  brigade and division commanders, on march in camp and in  strenuous campaigns, both in the western and eastern military  departments of the government, he faced the trials and hardships  of the private soldier.

At Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Raymond in the west and at  Winchester and Cedar Creek in the east, he saw active service and  faced the flame of strife and cloud of powder smoke in skirmish  and in battle.

Well knowing the horrors of war and the penalty of strife, he  was never much inclined to boast of his experiences and prowess  as a soldier so peculiar to many men with short terms of service  to their credit. The war over he returned to the habits of peace  and in all the long intervening years since was as good a citizen  as he was a soldier. Quiet in demeanor, strict to keep his word  and honorable in all the transactions of life, his citizenship  was ideal and stands a model for the emmulation of the growing  generation. He believed in the genius of hard work and deplored  waste and extravagance.

As a citizen he was firm in political conventions and never  neglected the duty to register his choice for public officials at  the poles. Once when under dire necessity to meet a financial  obligation, a payment on his property, he sought the advice of  his old comrade in arms, General Wallace. Rather timidly he told  the General of his difficulties, and the urge for a financial  accommodation. The General listened to his story patiently and  remarked, "If that's your only difficulty, dismiss the matter  from your mind," and offered him a loan to tide him over his  temporary financial embarassment. When he suggested he should  give his note as evidence of the debt, the General remarked, "I  need no such pledge from you, for your word and honor is as good  as your bond, for have I not seen your metal tested in an hundred  ways, on the march and in battle and if I depended on you in war,  why can't I depend on you in peace as a good citizen and  neighbor.

He was wont to remark at this display of confidence in his  personal integrity by his old commander, that it put a new spirit  in him. He would sooner face the firing line than to ask a favor  or owe and obligation. His anxiety for the welfare of others and  his independence to do for himself were conspicous traits of  character.

In war he suffered disease and incurred wounds in action. His  last battle was a losing adventure with a consuming disease, but  a gritty example of patience and forebearance. With the grim  reaper daily staring him in the face, he faced the final assize  of life with the same stolid patience and resolution that carried  him through the zone of carnage in the heroic days of civil  strife. We pause in reverence at his soldier bier and mourn for  the loss of a loyal friend.

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