Leonidas Polk

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Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 – June 14, 1864) was a Confederate general who was once a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a third cousin of President James K. Polk. He also served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and was for that reason sometimes known as The Fighting Bishop.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Civil War 3 In memoriam 4 Polk's effects 5 Recent controversy 6 References 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1806, Polk attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill briefly before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point. During his senior year, he joined the Episcopal Church. After graduating in 1827, he resigned his commission. He was ordained as a deacon in 1830. That year, he married Frances Ann Deveraux and became assistant to Bishop Richard Channing Moore in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1832, Polk moved his family to the vast Polk "Rattle and Snap" tract in Maury County, Tennessee, and constructed a massive Greek Revival home he called "Ashwood Hall." With his four brothers in Maury County, he built a family chapel, St. John's Church, at Ashwood. He also served as priest of St. Peter's Church in Columbia, Tennessee. He was appointed Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in 1838 and was elected Bishop of Louisiana in 1841.

Bishop Polk was the leading founder of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, which he envisioned as a national university for the South and a New World equivalent to Oxford and Cambridge.

[edit] Civil War

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Polk pulled the Louisiana Convention out of the Episcopal Church of the United States. His friend and former roommate at West Point, Jefferson Davis, prevailed upon Polk to accept a commission in the Confederate States Army. Polk agreed and was commissioned major general commanding Department No. 2 (roughly, the area between the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River) in 1861. He committed one of the great blunders of the Civil War by dispatching troops to occupy Columbus, Kentucky, in September 1861; the Commonwealth of Kentucky had declared its neutrality, but Polk's action ended that neutrality and the state quickly fell under Union control.

He organized the Army of Mississippi and a part of the Army of Tennessee, in which he later served as lieutenant general. Polk designed his own distinctive battle flag for his brigades; a blue field with a red St. George's cross, emblazoned with eleven stars, representing each of the Confederate states.[1] Polk led a corps during the Battle of Shiloh.

Following disagreements with the army's commander, Braxton Bragg, Polk was transferred to Mississippi and later took charge of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. Bragg's successor, Joseph E. Johnston, ordered Polk to join his forces with the Army of Tennessee in the Atlanta campaign.

Polk was scouting enemy positions with his staff when he was disemboweled by a Federal artillery shell at Pine Mountain near Marietta, Georgia, on June 14, 1864. Although his record as a field commander was poor, Polk was immensely popular with his troops, and his death was deeply mourned in the Army of Tennessee.

Polk was buried in Augusta, Georgia, and in 1945, his remains and those of his wife were reinterred at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans.

[edit] In memoriam

Fort Polk in Louisiana is named in his memory.

[edit] Polk's effects

Polk's sword, which was made in New Orleans and presented to Polk by Bishop Stephen Elliott, was auctioned in Fairfield, Maine, on October 4, 2005, along with personal letters and other items. The sword sold for $77,000 and the entire collection $1.6 million.^[1] It is believed that this is the first identified Confederate general's sword to ever be offered at auction.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Recent controversy

Sewanee's On-Line History Museum published a full-page tribute to Polk in the program of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in June 2006, describing him as a martyr to the faith and praising his achievements as both bishop and soldier. The announcement was part of the Leonidas Polk Bi-Centennial Memorial Series, a year-long event that included June 14, 2006, a day during the meeting of the General Convention, and the 142nd anniversary of Polk's death on Pine Mountain. The tribute was criticized by some historians of the Episcopal church for downplaying Polk's support of slavery and for mischaracterizing him as a martyr, given the circumstances of his death.

[edit] References

• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Puget Sound Civil War Round Table article on the auction.

[edit] External links

• A Letter From The Episcopal Church Historical Society On Bishop Polk And Sewanee
• Confederate General Leonidas Polk and the collapse of the Confederate command structure in the Western Theater — Paper by Civil War historian/author Bryan S. Bush, NU XI Student Historical Journal, Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, University of Louisville chapter, Fall 2004.
• The Leonidas Polk Registry Research Project
• Biography at "Know Southern History"
• Biography at "About North Georgia"
• CivilWarAlbum.com — Historical marker, monument and article