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June 2, 1961 Page Twenty-one

BISHOP-GENERAL...

(Continued from page 19)

In between military engagements, he found time to
officiate at the marriage of General John Morgan and to
baptize General Hood and General Joe Johnston, occa-
sions possibly unprecedented in military history. His men
were fiercely proud of their bishop-turned-general and
liked to cite the time when General Cheatham, Polk's
division commander rode along their line before a battle
with his usual. "Give 'em hell, boys," and General Polk
followed close behind echoing the same sentiment with
his characteristic Episcopal restraint, "Do as General Cheat-
ham says, boys."

By the battles of Mufreesborough and Chickamauga,
Polk was a Lieutenant General who had had horses shot
from beneath him and orderlies shot from beside him,
but still he only shrugged his shoulders occasionally when
bullets whistled too near his ears. The dark hair of his
missionary days had turned to silver and he had grown
a full gray beard, but a comparison of portraits from both
periods show the same penetrating, determined eyes. It
was during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, while he was
surveying his troops from the crest of Pine Mountain
that a shot from a Union cannon felled the bishop-general.
Like a militant Moses atop Mount Nebo, he died intrust-
ing the fate of his beloved country to his Maker; a blood-
stained prayer book was found inside his uniform next
to his heart. He was every inch an Episcopalian, and
beyond that, a Christian; every inch a Confederate, and
beyond that, a great American.

General Johnston's Field Orders of June 14th, 1864,
announcing the death of General Polk read,
His example is before you;
his mantle rests with you.
_______

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The work presented in this article is my own. Factual
material concerning incidents in the life of the subject was
taken from the books listed below.
—Emil T. Lechner.

Andrews, Cutler J. THE NORTH REPORTS THE CIVIL
WAR, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955.

Benet, Stephen Vincent. JOHN BROWN'S BODY, New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960.

Dowdey, Clifford. THE LAND THEY FOUGHT FOR, Garden
City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1955.

Polk, William M. LEONIDAS POLK, Volumes I and II, New
York: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1893.

Pollard, E. A. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROBERT E. LEE,
New York: E. B. Treat and Company, 1871.