Person

Leonidas Polk (Louisiana, bishop and general (C.S.A.))

b. 1806-04-10 d. 1864-06-14

Louisiana bishop and general. Raleigh, North Carolina, native. Married to Francis A. Polk. Father of Hamilton Polk, Frances A. Polk, Katherine Polk, Sarah H. Polk, Susan R. Polk, Elisabeth Polk, William Polk, and Rebecca Polk. Graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1827. Bishop in the Episcopal Church in Tennessee in 1838. First bishop of Louisiana from 1841 to 1864. Owned and operated several plantations in Tennessee. Commissioned as major general in Confederate States Army on June 25, 1861. Occupied Columbus, Kentucky, in September 1861 by order of Confederate States President Jefferson Davis. The conflicts between the two generals led President Davis to move Polk to Mississippi in December if 1863. Died during the Atlanta Campaign on June 14, 1864, after being hit by a Union artillery shell.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Louisiana, Lafourche, Bayou Lafourche, p. 334A-B.

"Leonidas Polk," Civil War Trust https://www.civilwar.org/learn/biographies/leonidas-polk (accessed June 26, 2017).

Glenn Robins, The Bishop of the Old South: The Ministry and Civil War Legacy of Leonidas Polk (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2006).

Joseph H. Parks, General Leonidas Polk C.S.A.: The Fighting Bishop (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962).

Find A Grave, "Leonidas Polk (1806-1864)," Memorial #4419, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4419 (accessed June 15, 2017).

Citation

Polk, Leonidas. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32213360 (January 24, 2026).

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