Robert Allen (March 15, 1811 – August 5, 1886) was a career officer in the United States Army, serving as a brigadier general during the American Civil War.

From his headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, Allen supervised the Federal supplies for all the region's major campaigns, including Vicksburg and Atlanta.

He was able to secure a wide variety of surplus railcars from various Northern railroads and arranged to have them ferried across the Ohio River from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and used for military purposes to transport food and supplies to the field armies along former Confederate railways.

Allen ranked only behind Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs (a fellow USMA 1836 graduate) in terms of responsibility and influence.

His efficiency in large scale logistics helped ensure that the Federal armies in his theater of war were much better equipped and fed than their Confederate opponents.