Leonidas Polk

Leonidas Polk 1806-64, American Episcopal bishop and Confederate general in the Civil War, b. Raleigh, N.C. He left the army to study for the ministry and was ordained in 1831. He served as missionary bishop of the Southwest (1838-41) and bishop of Louisiana (1841-61) and was the principal founder of the Univ. of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. (1857). In the Civil War he became a major general (June, 1861) in the Confederate army and was at first engaged in the defense of the Mississippi River. He commanded a corps at Shiloh (Apr., 1862), was promoted to lieutenant general shortly after fighting at Perryville (Oct.), and commanded the Confederate right at Murfreesboro (Dec., 1862-Jan., 1863). In the Chattanooga campaign Braxton Bragg accused him of dilatoriness at Chickamauga (Sept.) and had him relieved. Polk assumed command of the Army of Mississippi (Dec.) and fought in the Atlanta campaign until he was killed (June, 1864) at Pine Mountain, Ga.

Bibliography: See biography by J. H. Parks (1962); K. Elgin, The Episcopalians (1970).

Polk, Leonidas (1806–64) Confederate army officer. The North Carolinian was ordained in the Episcopal church and became bishop of the new Diocese of Louisiana in 1841. In the 1850s he devoted himself to organizing and founding the University of the South, which would represent the southern values he accepted, including slavery. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned a major general, thanks to an old friendship with Jefferson Davis, but his career as a commander was checkered; he tended to go his own way, sometimes in opposition to orders. He clashed repeatedly with Gen. Braxton Bragg and sought to undermine Bragg's career and reputation, eventually succeeding. Polk was killed by artillery fire while observing Union positions near Atlanta.