Sgt. Abraham Lincoln "Abe" Allen

Two citations tell the Cantigny story, and they do not agree on the day. The Distinguished Service Cross citation dates the shelling to May 22, 1918, while the Silver Star citation covers May 27 to 31, the days the town was taken and held. Both describe the same act: Allen, then a corporal, badly hurt when a shell buried two comrades, dug them out by hand and moved them to safety under shell and shrapnel fire. Born in Nona, Texas, he had enlisted at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans on January 16, 1917.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 29 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.

More markers nearby

• Phillip Nolan — 0.3 mi
• Life Along The Sabine River — 1.1 mi
• Kansas City Southern Railroad Depot — 1.1 mi
• Vernon Parish Founders — 1.2 mi