Allyn K. Capron, Jr.

Allyn Capron, Jr. (1871–1898) was an officer of the United States Army.

Before Cuba
Capron was the son of Captain Allyn K. Capron, Sr. and his wife Agnes. The younger Capron married and, when the Spanish-American War broke out, raised a troop of Rough Riders from the Old West to serve as volunteer cavalry in Cuba.

Battle and death
Capron's men were a troop of a regiment, commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant Colonel (later President) Theodore Roosevelt. General William R. Shafter's corps of American soldiers arrived in Cuba after the declaration of war in 1898, and Colonel Wood ordered Capron to take an advance guard up a hill at Las Guasimas.

The farthest forward unit of Capron's troop, commanded by a Sergeant Hamilton Fish II, ran into some 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 into action, Capron was shot by a Spanish soldier.

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