Leonidas Polk CDV Confederate General Civil War Perryville Atlanta Brady Anthony

  

Original CDV of Leonidas Polk in dress uniform with epaulettes. This image has the uniform imposed over the original image, which was by Mathew Brady of Polk in his Episcopal Bishop gown (final image for reference). This was a uncommon occurrence early in the war updated images of newly minted Confederate Generals from earlier Brady photographs. This is evident for Polk in this image as he is wearing the uniform of a Major General, which was his commission in the Confederacy; his highest rank in the United States army was brevet second lieutenant in the artillery shortly after graduating West Point, a commission he resigned to enter the Virginia Theological Seminary.

Anthony, 504 Broadway, New York, from Brady's negative. Staining to card and image. Card measures 2 3/8" x 4". Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 - June 14, 1864) was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a slaveholding planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K.

He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major general in the Confederate army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". In April 1862, Polk commanded the First Corps of Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh.

During the invasion of Kentucky by Bragg and Maj. Edmund Kirby Smith, Polk was in temporary command of the Army of Mississippi. At the Battle of Perryville, Polk's right wing constituted the main attacking force against Maj. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, but Polk was reluctant to attack the small portion of Buell's army that faced him until Bragg arrived at the battlefield.

Bragg relieved Polk of his command and ordered him to Atlanta to await further orders. Although Polk protested the "arbitrary and unlawful order" to the Secretary of War and demanded a court of inquiry, he was not restored to his position and Davis once again retained Bragg in army command, despite the protestations of a number of his subordinate generals. President Davis transferred his friend Polk to command the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (December 23, 1863 - January 28, 1864) and then the Department of Alabama and East Mississippi (January 28 - May 4, 1864), giving him effective command of the state of Mississippi.

In 1864 he was ordered to take his forces and join with Johnston in resisting Sherman's advance in the Atlanta Campaign. He assumed command of the Third Corps of the Army of Tennessee on May 4. His command remained commonly known as the "Army of Mississippi".

On June 14, 1864, Polk was scouting enemy positions near Marietta, Georgia, with his staff when he was killed in action by a Federal artillery shell at Pine Mountain. The shell struck Polk's left arm, went through his chest, and exited hitting his right arm, then exploded against a tree; it nearly cut Polk in two.