sentences:  He supported Virginia's secession during the American Civil War, and all his surviving sons joined the Confederate States Army, the two youngest dying in the conflict.Allen was born at Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Virginia to lawyer James Allen (1762-1844) and his wife, the former Jane Steele (1758-1826), daughter of Rev.John Steele (1715-1779; the "Fighting Parson" of Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania).