The death of General Polk

novushomus

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May 23, 2016
Someone on the American CivilWarTalk on Facebook posted this picture depicting the death of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, commanding the Army of Mississippi, on Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 14, 1864, during the middle of the Atlanta Campaign to commemorate the anniversary. I've not seen the picture before, so I thought I would share it.

Polk was killed when he accompanied his superior, General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Army of Tennessee, and Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, senior corps commander of the Army of Tennessee, to inspect the salient position occupied by Major General William Bate's division on Pine Mountain, which sat in front of the main Confederate line. They determined the position was too vulnerable to attack and should be evacuated, but as the group was about to disperse, the gaggle of generals and their aides drew the attention of Sherman, who ordered one of his batteries to open fire. The Federal gunners scored a direct hit on Polk, mauling him.

Sherman would write to Major General Henry W. Halleck, acting chief of staff, that "We killed Bishop Polk yesterday, and have made good progress today."

Sherman may have unwittingly helped the Confederate cause. Polk, an incompetent marplot at worst and a mediocre general at best, was replaced by Alexander P. Stewart, a far more vigorous soldier and able tactician and commander, who would vigorously assault and make inroads into the Federal 20th Corps position at Peachtree Creek later that July. Expired Image Removed
 
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Also, one of my ancestors, Milton Young, was in the 1st Ohio Light Artillery (Co I) that allegedly fired the shot that took out Polk.
If that's true, THIS makes it even more sad...It was said at Sewanee, The University of the South that the Illinois soldier who fired the cannon that killed Leonidas Polk was so distraught that he had killed such a fine man that he committed suicide. Taken from THIS article about that day.


Leonidas Polk
Death of a Bishop
About North Georgia

Rain.

polkmonument.jpg

Monument on the spot where General Leonidas Polk died
All it had done for the last three days was rain. In Georgia the red clay normally starts to bake in June so that by the end of July it has those telltale fissures every few feet, but in the June of 1864 it rained. From the 11th to the 14th it rained, and would rain for 10 days after, but today one of the most beloved Confederate generals would die. Beloved not only by his men, but by most southerners and many northerners as well, this rotund man had been an Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana for some twenty years and just recently baptized Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood.


polk.jpg

General Leonidas Polk
Born on April_10, 1806 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Leonidas Polk graduated from West Point in 1827, along with the future President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis and fellow officer Albert Sidney Johnston. Called to pursue a religious career, he resigned his commission in the army. Over the next thirty years that career would include missionary work and his appointment to the prestigious post of Bishop.

Secession brought the Bishop into the fold of the Confederate Army. He seized the city of Columbus, Kentucky, on September_3, 1861. On November_7, 1861, Polk chased off a then unknown Ulysses S. Grant at Belmont, Missouri. He saw action at Pittsburgh Landing (Shiloh), Perryville, Stone's River, and his troops bore the brunt of the first day's fighting at Chickamauga. He was transferred to Alabama after questioning Braxton Bragg about a decision.


Polk fought with the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign. Called to the line by Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, the swarthy Cajun, Johnston, Polk, and others journeyed to Pine Mountain to see if the position could be maintained. William Tecumseh Sherman surrounded the Confederates on three sides and William Hardee was fearful of being enveloped by Uncle Billy. As they studied the position Rebel infantry repeatedly warned the officers that Union artillery had the range of their position, but for some reason these men chose to ignore the warning and continued in full sight of the Federal batteries. Although mini-balls had come nearby, the big guns were under orders to conserve ammunition and did not fire until Sherman rode up and ordered them to keep the observers under cover. The first shot scattered most of the generals, but Polk, for some reason known but to him, took his time.


A second round struck nearby and the third round entered Polk through an arm, passing through his chest and exiting through the other arm. He was dead. Johnston stood over the man who had baptized him earlier in the campaign and cried. One of the few men who had little use for Rebels, and even less for the clergy was Gen. Sherman, who in a tersely worded statement sent to Gen. Halleck, "We killed Bishop Polk yesterday and have made good progress today..."

An interesting note: Polk donated the land for Maury County's Saint John's Church. It was so beautiful that General Patrick Cleburne remarked, "It is almost worth dying for to be buried in such a beautiful place." After Cleburne's death a few days later at the Battle of Franklin he was buried there until later disinterred.

The Polk Monument (pictured at right) is a tall shaft erected on the spot where Leonidas Polk fell that fateful day. Beginning in the 1890's many of the important events of The Civil War were being commemorated. A Marietta, Georgia soldier and his wife had the monument built to honor the general, fearing others would forget him. The monument is on private property but still accessible.

From a reader:
It was said at Sewanee, The University of the South that the Illinois soldier who fired the cannon that killed Leonidas Polk was so distraught that he had killed such a fine man that he committed suicide.
 
His death reached all the way to a Davis comment that his loss was "irreparable." I think this drew on the fact that he represented a potentially divine influence on the Confederate cause. I have no doubt that Polk was a very great and good man.
 
The accounts I have read describe how the incoming shell took off half of his chest, leaving him lying on the ground with what was left of his rib cage mostly exposed. What a horrible sight it must have been for those around him, even though those sights were all so common, especially by 1864.
One of my ancestors, PVT George Washington Cole of the 19th Alabama Infantry, was attached to Polk's HQ as a teamster for a while. I've often wondered if he saw his body after he died.

People can say Polk may not have been the most qualified general, but his men held him in extremely high regard. They loved him.
 
His death reached all the way to a Davis comment that his loss was "irreparable." I think this drew on the fact that he represented a potentially divine influence on the Confederate cause. I have no doubt that Polk was a very great and good man.

As a bishop, maybe, but as a general no. He had charisma and the appeal of a southern religious man with the men of his corps, but that was about one of his only qualities.
 
Artillerymen love crowds, it gives them more targets which is something Polk forgot in the Civil War and Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. forgot it in WWII. Also, signs of rank (fancy uniforms in Polk's case and a helmet with three stars in Buckner's case made them stand out.
 
Artillerymen love crowds, it gives them more targets which is something Polk forgot in the Civil War and Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. forgot it in WWII. Also, signs of rank (fancy uniforms in Polk's case and a helmet with three stars in Buckner's case made them stand out.
yes it was a silly error which cost Buckner Jr
 
Someone on the American CivilWarTalk on Facebook posted this picture depicting the death of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, commanding the Army of Mississippi, on Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 14, 1864, during the middle of the Atlanta Campaign to commemorate the anniversary. I've not seen the picture before, so I thought I would share it.

Polk was killed when he accompanied his superior, General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Army of Tennessee, and Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, senior corps commander of the Army of Tennessee, to inspect the salient position occupied by Major General William Bate's division on Pine Mountain, which sat in front of the main Confederate line. They determined the position was too vulnerable to attack and should be evacuated, but as the group was about to disperse, the gaggle of generals and their aides drew the attention of Sherman, who ordered one of his batteries to open fire. The Federal gunners scored a direct hit on Polk, mauling him.

Sherman would write to Major General Henry W. Halleck, acting chief of staff, that "We killed Bishop Polk yesterday, and have made good progress today."

Sherman may have unwittingly helped the Confederate cause. Polk, an incompetent marplot at worst and a mediocre general at best, was replaced by Alexander P. Stewart, a far more vigorous soldier and able tactician and commander, who would vigorously assault and make inroads into the Federal Twentieth Corps position at Peachtree Creek later that July. Expired Image Removed
Thought he was horseback when struck
 
Horrific death for a "Man of the Cloth" Polk spent over 7 months here in Demopolis and used Gainswood as his headquarters. He also attended and on occasion gave sermons at our Trinity Episcopal Church which was "accidentally"? burned by the Union army during occupation of Demopolis. One of the centerpieces of the church is "The Bishops" chair which was made for him in 1840 when he became Bishop of Louisiana. The chair was donated by his family.
polks-chair.jpg
trinitychurch.JPG
size(8).jpg
 
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