(1811-1886) Union brigadier general, chief quartermaster of the Department of the Missouri, where he supervised the Federal supplies for all the region's major campaigns, including Vicksburg and Atlanta. Later given command of all quartermaster operations west of the Mississippi. Good content and association A.L.S., 2pp. 8vo., Louisville, Dec. 27, 1865, to Col. James F. Rusling. In part; ‘...I wrote you a note denoted to Trenton which it appears you did not receive. I told you in that, that I considered since they had given [Maj. Gen. Hugh Judson] Kilpatrick a position that they should certainly provide for you. I have no doubt that your services were quite as effective as this… General; but you see… he had a bigger title; he could boast of Cavalry raids of ‘Many accidents by flood and field’ while you now clerk to a Quarter Master, with the title of Captain. It is true you became a Colonel, but then you had not been a fighting man – you were not a bold dragoon… He had not only slain his thousands by his sword, but his tens of thousands by his [?]. I would were I you remind our friend Andy [Andrew Johnson], that it was not in the programme that you were to go into exile; that you had not the meekness of a Cincinnatus, but that you were a live man and had something to live for…’ Allen closes by noting that he is due to take charge of the Department of the Pacific in the spring, and signs at the conclusion in black ink. The original transmittal envelope is also present. The letter shows original mailing folds with notable splits thereto, otherwise in very good condition overall. Interestingly, Rusling would be brevetted Brigadier General of Volunteers in February of 1866, while Kilpatrick had already resigned from the Army by the time Allen penned his letter.