6

The genealogical derivations of many heroes are done to death
by their biographers but some facts about Leonidas Polk's heredity
are relevant. His cousin was President James K. Polk. His grand-
father, Thomas Polk, served with George Washington and was made a
general by Nathaniel Greene. His father, William, was called a
general but the title had no military validity. He conscientiously
declined appointment as brigadier-general by the President in 1812
because he hadn't voted for Madison. Actually William Polk was a
gallandt and twice-wounded major in the Revolution, later becoming a
colonel in the state militia.

There was good blood on his mother's side too. Sarah Hawkins
(second wife of William Polk) also had force and imagination, vigorously
advocating railroads in the state. Her brother, William Hawkins,
was governor when Leonidas was a school boy. Family legend assures
us she descended directly from Drake's fellow admiral, John Hawkins.

Polk's youth was what might have been expected in a large family
(fourteen) headed by forceful parents. His natural vitality was
occasionally overshadowed by a pulmonary weakness similar to the
tuberculosis which resulted in the death of his brother, Hamilton.
In Raleigh he attended Dr. McPheeter's academy. He as a big
handsome boy of fifteen when he went off to Chapel Hill, leaving in
his second year to accept an appointment to the U. S. Military
Academy arranged by his soldier-loving father.