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B-14 Sunday, March 23, 1986 The Times-Picayune 3

'Fighting bishop' won more battles for the church

When Louisiana's Episcopal
Bishop Leonidas Polk joined the
Confederate Army, he said he felt
like a man "whose house is on
fire and who has to leave his
business to put it out."

The "fighting bishop" held a
lieutenant general's rank in the
Civil War. But many military his-
torians agree that Polk was a
greater success as a man of God
than a man of war.

And Confederate Gen. Brax-
ton Bragg, an irascible man look-
ing for someone to blame,
accused Polk of losing the war.

Leonidas Polk was born in
Raleigh, N.C., in April 1806. At
16, he stood taller than 6 feet,
was handsome, with dark eyes
and a firm mouth, according to
Vera Lea Dugas, who wrote a
master's thesis on "The Ante-
Bellum Career of Leonidas Polk."

Polk won an appointment to
West Point in 1823. He became a
leader among members of the
cadet corps--who were jolted to
see Polk on his knees at one
Sunday chapel service. Never
before in academy history had
any cadet knelt. Before many
weeks, they all did, and soon, a
religious revival swept West
Point, to the dismay of some sen-
ior officers. Polk, in answer to
what he felt was a divine call,
was baptized within the month.

He resigned his commission
soon after graduation to be
ordained, at 24, an Episcopal
minister. His father's disgusted
reaction was that he was "spoil-
ing a good soldier to make a bad
preacher."

It wasn't true. As a missionary
to Louisiana and Mississippi dur-
ing the 1830s, he traveled by
boat, mail coach, horseback,
through rich farmland and mod-
est hamlets, spreading the word
of God.

In 1838 Polk was named mis-
sionary bishop of the southwest.
The next year, he held what was
said to be the first religious ser-
vice in Shreveport, where his
courage--and perhaps his size
--won over a mob more eager to
fight than pray.

In 1841, at the age of 32, Polk
became the first Episcopal bishop
of Louisiana. He was also rector
of Trinity Church in New
Orleans from 1855 until 1860,
when he resigned to devote more
time to founding the University
of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

Then came the Civil War
and it changed his life. First he
severed his diocese in Louisiana
from the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States.
Prayer in the diocese was now
said for the "governor of the
state" instead of the "president
of the United States."

President of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis offered him a
major general's commission--he
was later promoted to lieuten-
ant general. Polk accepted the
post because, he said, "we of the
Confederate states are the last
bulwarks of civil and religious lib-
erty; we fight for our hearth-
stones and our altars."

When congratulated on his
promotion, Polk said stiffly that
it was no promotion, that he
already held the highest office on
Earth as a bishop, and that he
had "buckled on the sword over
the gown." It was clear that he
was following his conscience to
do what he perceived as his duty
to God and country.

Confederate Gen. Braxton
Bragg, who commanded the
Army of Tennessee, did not
appreciate the sacrifice. Polk,
who had fought at the Battle of
Shiloh and at Corinth, later
served under Bragg and no love
was lost between the two men.
Ed Tinney, a National Park Ser-
vice historian at Chickamauga-
Chattanooga National Military
Park, has said that nobody really
cared much for Bragg but his
wife. History sources refer to
Bragg's irritability and his fail-
ure to capitalize on his victories.

After on inconclusive battle,
Polk wrote Jefferson Davis rec-
ommending, unsuccessfully, that
the Confederate president find a
new commander for the army.
The Battle of Chicamauga near
Chattanooga, which has been
called the bloodiest two days of
the Civil War, brought the sim-
mering hostility to a boil. The
battle began on Sept. 19, 1863.

Polk was ordered to block the
enemy's retreat route to Chatta-
nooga by turning the Union
flank. At the first day's end, both
armies still stood fast. According
to Bragg's version, he issued
instructions to his generals that
night to strike at dawn, with Polk
commanding the Confederate
right wing.

Dawn came. Polk did not,
according to Bragg. A staff off-
cer, hunting him frantically,
found him at a farmhouse three
miles behind the lines waiting for
breakfast. Polk's five-hour delay
in thrusting his troops into the
battle gave fleeing Union troops
time to reach Chattanooga and
regroup--or so Bragg said.

Historians point out that
Bragg bitterly dressed down sev-
eral generals for being in the
wrong place and relieved them of
their commands, leading to the
conclusion that only Bragg was
where he should have been at the right time.

Bragg wanted to courtmartial
the bishop, then 57, but Presi-
dent Davis said a "public calam-
ity" would result.

Polk was transferred to
another command.

Henry Watterson, who later
became the noted editor of the
Louisville Courier-Journal,
fought under Polk. He said of
the bishop, "In the battle, he was
a daring old man with his heart
in the fray, and his best faith on
the result; riding through shot
and shell from point to point;
conscious of danger, directing the
movements of his line with a
quiet self-possession which
bespoke knowledge. He was kind
and considerate of his men;
approachable and self-denying;
and did not know the name of
fear. He was every inch a gentle-
man, simple and innocent yet
dignified and imposing."

Polk was with Gen. John Bell
Hood's army at Pine Mountain,
Ga., on June 14, 1864, scanning
the battlefield form his field
glasses. The other officers were
leaving, but Polk turned back to
look once more. A Union shell
struck him in the chest, killing
him instantly.

One of his division command-
ers wrote of him, "Thus died a
gentleman and a high church dig-
nitary. As a soldier he was more
theoretical than practical."

Polk and his wife were both
buried in Augusta, Ga., but in
1944, their bodies were returned
to New Orleans and rest side by
side in Christ Church Cathedral.
Many of their descendants are
still living in New Orleans.

Picture caption: Episcopal Bishop Leonidas Polk: fighting the good fight

PHOTO COURTESY HOWARD-TILTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY, TULANE UNIVERSITY