The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-13
WAS BORN IN RALEIGH
Monument to Col. Polk I'm
yelled on thursday,
The Morum ,nt Was Erected at the Expense Of
Mr.. J. Gid Morris of CT BIB County,
Georgia

During the past week the monument
erected to the memory of Bishop Leo
nodas Polk was unveiled at the spot
where the bishop hero met his death.
The monument was erected by a plain
Georgia farmer, a Confederate veteran,
Mr.. j. Glib Morris, of Cobb county. Re-
ferring to the event the Atlanta Journal
says:
when the civil war began Leonidas
Polk had been for years a famous and
largely useful priest of the Protestant
Episcopal church. He was elected to the
bishopric of Louisiana when little past
thirty and was recognized as one of the
most gifted ministers of his church.
But he believed that men are some
times called of God to fight, as well as to
preach, and became convinced that his
highest duty required that he should de-
fend the South to the utmost of his
ability against invasion and conquest.
''He was a priest after the kind of
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, of
Pennsylvania, who, when the American
colonists determined to throw off the
British yoke, cast aside his clerical
robes and drawing his sword in his own
church led the majority of the men in
his congregation to battle and became
one of the most efficient of Revolutionary
soldiers His monument in marble has
been appropriately placed by Pennsyl-
vania in the Statuary Hall of the ma
tons capitol.
''Muhlenberg in announcing his de-
cison to fight for his country expressed
precisely the sentiment which animated
Bishop Polk in taking the field. He said:
81 am a clergyman, it is true, but
am a member of society as we'll as
the poorest layman, and my liberty
is as dear to me as to any man.
Shall l, then, sit still and enjoy my
self at home when the best blood of
the continent is splitting"
''Leonidas Palk made a brilliant record
as a soldier, rose to the rank of lieu
tenant general and was among the most
efficient officers of that grade in the Con-
federate army. To him may be fifty ap-
piled the grand words that were written
of Sir Galahad:
His strength was as the strength of
ten because his heart was pure
ANOTHER SKETCH.
The following short sketch of Bishop
Chapel Hill:
Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk,
for whom the Chapel Hill Chapter,
United Daughters of the Confederacy,
is called was member of the prominent
Polk family of North Carolina, several
of whom moved to Tennessee early in the
last century, and was a near relative of
James K. Polk, President Of the United
States.
General Polk was born in Raleigh,
n. c.. in 1906. He entered the Univer-
sity of North Carolina, but left without
completing the course to enter West
Point Military Academy.
Soon after his graduation there he re-
signed his commission in the army, stu
died for the ministry of the Episcopal
church and was ordained priest i'll 1881.
In 1888 he became Bishop of the Mis-
sionary district, including part of Texas,
Louisiana and Arkansas; later was
elected Bishop of the Diocese of
Louisiana. At the beginning the civil
war he was urged by President Davis
to accept a command in the COnfeder-
ate army, received a commission as
Ma ior- General, was promoted in 1862 to
Lieutenant General. He was eminently
fitted for these position, by distinguish
ed ability and by his military training;
but his headlong courage lost valuable
life to the Confederacy when he was
killed in the battle of Pine Mountain.
Ga, June IA. 1854
General Polk was an uncle of Mrs. T.
A. Odds. of this city.