Allyn Capron, Jr.

Captain Allyn K. Capron (24 June 1871 – 24 June 1898) was the first United States Army officer to die in the Spanish–American War.

Before Cuba Allyn Kissam Capron was the first son of Agnes Kissam and Allyn Capron, an 1867 graduate of the United States Military Academy. The younger Capron was born on 24 June 1871 in Brooklyn, New York City, where his father was serving as an Army officer at Fort Hamilton. He was unsuccessful in obtaining an appointment to the Military Academy for himself, so he enlisted as private in 1890 and rose rapidly through the ranks as: Private, Corporal and Sergeant, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 20 Oct 1890–1893 Second Lieutenant, 5th U.S. Infantry, 7 Oct 1893 Transferred to 7th Cavalry, 30 Nov 1894, became Lieutenant Captain. 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, 10 May 1898

Capron married Lillian Morris on 12 August 1896. Theodore Roosevelt later wrote of Capron:

Battle and death General William R. Shafter's corps of American soldiers arrived in Cuba after the declarations of war in 1898. Capron's regiment was commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant Colonel (later President) Theodore Roosevelt. Colonel Wood granted Capron's request to lead the vanguard, ordering Capron to take his advance guard up a hill at Las Guasimas.

The forward unit of Capron's troop, commanded by Sergeant Hamilton Fish II, ran into Spanish gunfire on the hill. Capron rode up and found a dead Cuban scout and Sergeant Fish lying in the middle of the road. Bringing up his troops and leading them in action, Capron lay down to fire at the Spanish soldiers and was shot through the space between the left shoulder and neck with the bullet passing through the lungs and exiting out the right area in the waist.

Brought to the rear by a Rough Rider, Capron died on 24 June 1898. He was highly praised by his commanders, including Roosevelt and was awarded a posthumous Silver Star in 1925. His widow Lillian received the decoration.

After his body was returned to the United States, Capron was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on 27 July 1898. His wife was interred beside him after her death in 1937.