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Leonidas "Bishop" Polk

Date of Birth:      April 10, 1806
Hometown:         Raleigh, NC
Education:           West Point, 1827
Final Wartime Rank:    Lieutenant General
Final Peacetime Rank:  N/A

Date of Death:     June 14, 1864
Place of Death:    Marietta, GA
Buried At:           New Orleans, LA

Major Battles:        Battle of Shiloh, 1862 Kentucky Campaign, Stones River, Chickamauga, Atlanta Campaign

Interesting Fact(s):    Polk, an 1827 graduate, of West Point, would become close friends, with Jefferson Davis, who was in the following class.  After graduation, he resigned his commission, and entered the Episcopal ministry, gaining his nickname, "Bishop."  With the outbreak, of the Civil War, Polk was appointed major general in the Provisional Confederate Army.  Being sent west, Polk would enter the free state, of Kentucky, anchoring the western flank, of Albert Sidney Johnston's army, on the Mississippi River, at Columbus, KY.  Called the "Gibraltar of the West," his works at Columbus would be substantial, but would forever align Kentucky, with the Union, as his forces were considered invaders, in a neutral state.  After the fall of Fort Donelson, Columbus would become untenable, and the "Bishop" would evacuate Columbus and move to northern Mississippi, to unite with Sidney Johnston's army.  He would serve as a corps commander, at Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga and in the Atlanta Campaign.  He would be promoted lieutenant general in October 1862.  The "Bishop" was mortally wounded, while leading his corps, at Marietta, Georgia.
