Leonidas Polk Leonidas Polk ( April 10 , 1806 – June 14 , 1864 ) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War who was once a planter in Maury County , Tennessee , and a second cousin of President James K . Polk . He also served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and was for that reason known as " The Fighting Bishop " . Polk was one of the more controversial political general s of the war , elevated to a high military position with no prior combat experience because of his friendship with Confederate President Jefferson Davis . He fought as a corps commander in many of the major battles of the Western Theater , but is remembered more for his bitter disagreements with his immediate superior , Gen . Braxton Bragg of the Army of Tennessee , than for his success in combat . Now under the command of Gen . Joseph E . Johnston , he was killed in action in 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign . Early life . Polk was born in Raleigh , North Carolina , to Sarah ( Hawkins ) Polk and Colonel William Polk , a Revolutionary War veteran and prosperous planter . He was of Scottish and Scotch - Irish ancestry . Capitalizing on his position as chief surveyor of the central district of Tennessee , William was able to acquire about of land . Polk attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill briefly before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point . During his senior year , he joined the Episcopal Church , baptized in the Academy Chapel by Chaplain Charles P . McIlvaine , who later became the Episcopal Bishop of Ohio . Polk had an impressive academic record , excelling in rhetoric and moral philosophy . He graduated eighth of 38 cadets on July 1 , 1827 , and was appointed a brevet second lieutenant in the artillery . Polk resigned his commission on December 1 , 1827 , so that he could enter the Virginia Theological Seminary . He became an assistant to Bishop Richard Channing Moore at Monumental Church in Richmond , Virginia . Moore ordained Polk as a deacon in April 1830 and a priest the following year . On May 6 , 1830 , Polk married Frances Ann Deveraux , daughter of John and Frances Pollock Devereaux ; her mother was the granddaughter of Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards . The Polks had eight children . In 1832 , Polk moved his family to the vast Polk " Rattle and Snap " tract in Maury County , Tennessee , and constructed a massive Greek Revival home he called " Ashwood Hall " . Polk was the largest slaveholder in Maury County , Tennessee , in 1840 , with 111 slaves . ( By 1850 , census records state that Polk owned 215 slaves , but other estimates are as high as 400 . ) With his four brothers in Maury County , he built a family chapel , St . John ' s Church , at Ashwood . He also served as priest of St . Peter ' s Church in Columbia , Tennessee . He was appointed Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in September 1838 and was elected Bishop of Louisiana in October 1841 . Bishop Polk was the leading founder of the in Sewanee , Tennessee , which he envisioned as a national university for the South and a New World equivalent to Oxford and Cambridge , both in England . ( In his August 1856 letter to Bishop Elliott , he expounded on the secessionist motives for his university . ) Polk laid and consecrated the cornerstone for the first building on October 9 , 1860 . Polk ' s foundational legacy at Sewanee is remembered always through his portrait " Sword Over the Gown " , painted by Eliphalet F . Andrews in 1900 . After the original was vandalized in 1998 , a copy by Connie Erickson was unveiled on June 1 , 2003 . Civil War . Kentucky . At the outbreak of the Civil War , Polk pulled the Louisiana Convention out of the Episcopal Church of the United States . Although he hoped that secession would result in a peaceful separation of the North and South and suggested that he was reluctant to take up arms personally , he did not hesitate to write to his friend and former classmate at West Point , Jefferson Davis , offering his services in the Confederate States Army . Polk was commissioned a major general on June 25 , 1861 , and ordered to command Department No . 2 ( roughly , the area between the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River ) . He committed one of the great blunders of the Civil War by dispatching troops to occupy Columbus , Kentucky , in September 1861 ; the critical border state of Kentucky had declared its neutrality between the Union and the Confederacy , but Polk ' s action was instrumental in prompting the Kentucky legislature to request Federal aid to resist his advance , ending the state ' s brief attempt at neutrality and effectively ceding it to Union control for the remainder of the war . Polk ' s command saw its first combat on November 7 , 1861 , in the minor , inconclusive Battle of Belmont between Polk ' s subordinate , Brig . Gen . Gideon J . Pillow and Union Brig . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant . Although not present on the battlefield himself , Polk was wounded nearby on November 11 when the largest cannon in his army , nicknamed " Lady Polk " in honor of his wife , exploded during demonstration firing . The explosion stunned Polk and blew his clothes off , requiring a convalescence of several weeks . During this period Polk argued about strategy with his subordinate , Pillow , and his superior , Gen . Albert Sidney Johnston , commander of Confederate forces in the Western Theater . Resentful that his former West Point roommate was giving him orders , he submitted a letter of resignation to President Davis on November 6 , but Davis rejected the request . Army of Mississippi . In April 1862 , Polk commanded the First Corps of Albert Sidney Johnston ' s Army of Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh and continued in that role for much of the rest of the year under Gen . Braxton Bragg , who replaced Beauregard , who had assumed command following the death of A . S . Johnston , killed on the first day at Shiloh . At various times his command was considered a corps and at other times the " Right Wing " of the army . In the fall , during the invasion of Kentucky by Bragg and Maj . Gen . Edmund Kirby Smith , Polk was in temporary command of the Army of Mississippi while Bragg visited Frankfort to preside over the inauguration of a Confederate governor for the state . Polk disregarded an order from Bragg to attack the flank of the pursuing Union Army near Frankfort . At the Battle of Perryville , Polk ' s right wing constituted the main attacking force against Maj . Gen . 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 . One of the enduring legends of the Civil War is that Polk witnessed his subordinate , Maj . Gen . Benjamin F . Cheatham , advancing his division . Cheatham allegedly shouted , " Give ' em hell , boys ! " and Polk , retaining the sensibility of his role as an Episcopal bishop , seconded the cheer : " Give it to ' em boys ; give ' em what General Cheatham says ! " Army of Tennessee . After Perryville , Polk began a year - long campaign to get Bragg relieved of command , hoping to use his close relationship with President Davis to accomplish his goal . Despite the failure of his Kentucky campaign , Bragg was retained in command , but this did nothing to reduce the enmity between Polk and Bragg . Polk was promoted to lieutenant general on October 11 , 1862 , with date of rank of October 10 . He became the second most senior Confederate of that rank during the war , behind James Longstreet . In November , the Army of Mississippi was renamed the Army of Tennessee and Polk commanded its First Corps until September 1863 . Polk fought under Bragg at the Battle of Stones River in late 1862 and once again Bragg ' s subordinates politicked to remove their army commander after an unsuccessful battle ( the battle was tactically inconclusive , but Bragg was unable to stop the advance of the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj . Gen . William S . Rosecrans and Bragg withdrew his army to Tullahoma , Tennessee ) . Bragg was also unsuccessful in resisting Rosecrans ' s advance in the Tullahoma Campaign , which began to threaten the important city of Chattanooga . In the face of Rosecrans ' s expert maneuvering of his army , Polk counseled Bragg to retreat rather than stand and fight in their Tullahoma fortifications . Rosecrans eventually maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga and the Army of Tennessee withdrew into the mountains of northwestern Georgia with the Army of the Cumberland in hot pursuit . Bragg planned to attack and destroy at least one of Rosecrans ' s corps , advancing separately over mountainous roads . He was infuriated when Polk ' s division under Maj . Gen . Thomas C . Hindman failed to attack an isolated Union corps at Davis ' s Cross Roads as ordered on September 11 . Two days later , Polk disregarded orders from Bragg to attack another isolated corps , the second failed opportunity . At the Battle of Chickamauga , Polk was given command of the Right Wing and the responsibility for initiating the attack on the second day of battle ( September 19 ) . He failed to inform his subordinates of the plan and his wing was late in attacking , allowing the Union defenders time to complete their field fortifications . Bragg wrote after the war that if it were not for the loss of these hours , " our independence might have been won . " Chickamauga was a great tactical victory for Bragg , but instead of pursuing and destroying the Union Army as it retreated , he laid siege to it in Chattanooga , concentrating his effort against the enemies inside his army instead of his enemies from the North . He demanded an explanation from Polk on the bishop ' s failure to attack in time on September 20 and Polk placed the blame entirely on one of his subordinates , Maj . Gen . D . H . Hill . Bragg wrote to President Davis , " Gen ' l Polk by education and habit is unfit for executing the plans of others . He will convince himself his own are better and follow them without reflecting on the consequences . " 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 . Mississippi . 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 following the departure of Gen . Joseph E . Johnston to replace Bragg in command of the Army of Tennessee . Polk unsuccessfully attempted to oppose Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s raid against Meridian , Mississippi , in February 1864 . In May , 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 ( which was nicknamed the " Army of Mississippi " ) on May 4 . Atlanta Campaign and death . Polk brought more than 20 , 000 men with him to Georgia . Because of his elevated rank , he became the army ' s second in command under Johnston . By using successive flanking maneuvers , Sherman forced Johnston to withdraw his army from strong defensive positions to protect the Confederate line of communication . This forced Johnston ever closer to the critically important city of Atlanta . On June 14 , 1864 , Polk was scouting enemy positions near Marietta , Georgia , with his staff when he was killed in action by a Federal shell at Pine Mountain . The artillery fire was initiated when Sherman spotted a cluster of Confederate officers — Polk , Hardee , Johnston , and their staffs — in an exposed area . He pointed them out to Maj . Gen . Oliver O . Howard , commander of the IV Corps , and ordered him to fire on them . The 5th Indiana Battery , commanded by Capt . Peter Simonson , obeyed the order within minutes . The first round came close and a second even closer , causing the men to disperse . The third shell struck Polk ' s left arm , went through the chest , and exited hitting his right arm then exploded against a tree ; it nearly cut Polk in two . Legacy . Although his record as a field commander was poor , Polk was immensely popular with his troops , and his death was deeply mourned in the Army of Tennessee . Polk ' s funeral service at Saint Paul ' s Church in Augusta , Georgia , was one of the most elaborate during the war . His friend Bishop Stephen Elliott of Georgia presided at the service , delivering a stirring funeral oration . He was buried in a location under the present - day altar . The church has a monument to the bishop near the altar , and the original grave site can be visited . In 1945 , his remains and those of his wife were reinterred at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans . His grave can be found in the front floor sanctuary , to the right of the pulpit . Polk ' s nephew , Lucius E . Polk , was also a Confederate general . Polk ' s son , William Mecklenburg Polk , was a physician and a Confederate captain , who later authored his most flattering biography . Fort Polk in Louisiana is named in Bishop Polk ' s memory . In popular media . Leonidas Polk appears as a character in three novels about the Battle of Shiloh . In Jeff Sharaa ' s " A Blaze of Glory " , Polk is an important supporting character , as he is also in Daniel F . Korn ' s Dawn ' s Gray Steel . Polk is a minor figure in Shelby Foote ' s " Shiloh " . Polk ' s appearance in Alden Carter ' s " Bright Starry Banner " , a novel about the Battle of Stone ' s River , was more controversial , as Polk was depicted as unhinged .