Polk, LEONIDAS

Polk, LEONIDAS, the Antony Bek of the Confederacy, was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, 10th April 1806. He was a cousin of President Polk, and grandson of Colonel Thomas Polk, an officer of the Revolution. Graduating at West Point in 1827, he received a commission in the artillery, but was induced to study for the ministry, and in 1830 received deacon's and in 1831 priest's orders in the Episcopal Church. In 1838 he was consecrated Bishop of Arkansas and Indian Territory, with charge of the dioceses of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; in 1841 he resigned all these except the bishopric of Louisiana, which he retained—even when at the head of an army corps—until his death. Soon after the outbreak of the civil war he was offered a major-generalship by Jefferson Davis, and, accepting it, proceeded to strongly fortify strategic points on the Mississippi. At Belmont, in November 1861, he was driven from his camp by Grant, but returned and eventually compelled him to retire. At Shiloh and at Corinth he commanded the 1st corps; in October 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant-general, and in November he conducted the retreat from Kentucky. After Chickamauga, where he commanded the right wing, he was relieved of his command; but in December 1863 he was appointed to the department of Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana, and he afterwards joined Johnston in opposing Sherman's march to Atlanta. He was killed while reconnoitring on Pine Mountain, 14th June 1864, by a cannon-shot fired by some Northern officers who wished to give the bishop's party a fright. See the Life by W. M. Polk (1894).