Sewanee's On-Line History Museum Welcomes You to the Bishop-General Leonidas Polk Memorial Web Site

The Sewanee Quattuor #4 of 4:

Funeral Services for Leonidas Polk:

"From the tip of Jekyll Island to the last bend of the Mississippi at the Tennessee line, the South mourned a grand Southern soldier, after holding the biggest funeral of the War for Polk at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Beloved as Polk was, a war for revenge now raged on both sides. -Christian Kepler, "The War Against the South,"
2003, Canadian Heritage Alliance

First funeral at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, downtown Atlanta, Georgia:

Atlanta, Georgia, in 1864.
_____________________

"Church Yankees Shelled is Now 100," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine, April 19, 1964

(Collection of Vic Holmes, Great Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee.)

Site of the first funeral of Bishop-General Leonidas Polk.

Georgia Historical Commission marker 060- 193 (1964) in front of current St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia-

SAINT LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
1864 - 1964

The Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, surgeon and priest serving as a
chaplain in the Confederate Army, organized St. Luke's Parish
Easter Monday, March 28, 1864. Confederate troops erected first
building on the south side of Walton Street, between Broad and
Forsyth streets. Consecrated April 22, 1864, by Bishop Stephen
Elliott first Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia. There Quintard conducted
funeral services for Episcopal Bishop and General Leonidas K. Polk.
During the burning of Atlanta, building was consumed by fire. On
June 12, 1870, the parish reorganized with the name of St. Stephen's
in honor of Bishop Stephen Elliott. January 3, 1872, the vestry
made St. Luke's rebirth official by voting that "The present name
of St. Stephen's be changed to that formerly held- St. Luke's."
Church erected in 1875 at Spring and Walton streets and on
April 10, 1881, The Right Rev. John W. Beckwith took charge of
this as his cathedral, thus making it the first building in the
Diocese of Georgia so designated. A new building erected in 1883,
bore cathedral status until 1894. The present structure dates from
1906. In 100 years there have been 17 rectors, 6 of whom have
become Episcopal Bishops.

(Correction: There was not "K." initial in his name.)

Second funeral at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Augusta, Georgia:

"ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL, chapter xi, verse 28- The Master is come and calleth for thee."

"God has made everything beautiful in his time, and nothing is more beautiful than Death, when it comes to one who has faithfully fulfilled all the duties of life, and is ready for its summons."

"In the history of the Church of Christ the death of its most illustrious saints has taken the revolting form of violence."

"Why, then, stand appalled that, in these latter days, our brother should have died by the hand of violence? Has human nature changed? Has fanaticism learned any mercy? Does the fire which is lighted from hell ever cease its fury against the children of the Most High?"

"Do ye not hear the voices of your own brethren, Ministers and Bishops, hounding on these hordes of lawless men to the desolation of our homes, our altars, our families, ourselves? The body which lies before us is the last, but not the only one, of our martyred Bishops."

"Our brother fills the grave of a Christian warrior! Although a minister of the Prince of Peace, and a Bishop in the Church of God, he had poured out his life-blood for us upon the field of battle."

"His Master has come and called for him, and with him we leave his cause gladly, joyfully, in unswerving confidence."

"God raises up his own servants for his own use; elects them, calls them, prepares them, places them where they shall be ready for action, and in due time gives them their work to do. It rises up so plainly before them, that they cannot avoid it. It sweeps up to their feet; it involves them in its current. They ofttimes struggle against it, but it overpowers them by its irresistible circumstances, until at last they find themselves mere instruments in God's hands, doing His will, driven by His spirit, supported by his strength, dying as his martyrs! Let us apply these principles to the life and conduct of him whose murdered body now lies before us."

"If personal courage, comprehensive views, quick perception, rapid combination, prompt decision, great administrative capacity, with the faculty of commanding men, and at the same time of attaching them to him, are the qualities which make a great military leader, then we, who know him best and have longest acted with him, can bear our testimony to his possession of these qualities in a most eminent degree. These were his characteristics in everything he did -the qualities which have mad him illustrious in every phase of his life."

"It all depends upon the stand-point from which we view this conflict. If we consider it a mere struggle for political power, a question of sovereignty and of dominion, then should I be loathe to mingle the Church of Christ with it in any form or manner. But such is not the nature of this conflict. It is no such war as nations wage against each other for a balance of power or the adjustment of a boundary. We are resisting a crusade- a crusade of license against law -of infidelity against the altars of the living God -of fanaticism against a great spiritual trust committed to our cares. We are warring with hordes of unprincipled foreigners, ignorant and brutal men, who, having cast off at home all the restraints of order and belief, have signalized their march over our devoted country by burning the Churches of Christ, by defiling the altars upon which the sacrifices of the death of our Saviour is commemorated, and by violating our women, by raising the banner of servile insurrection, by fanning into fury the demoniac passions of the ignorant and vile! "

"It is a wonderful coincidence (to say the least of it) that he who, in his young manhood, consecrated his sword as an offering to the Lord, should, in the ripeness of his old age, have resumed that sword to do the battles of Religion and the Church!"

"He laid aside, for the Church's sake, the comforts of domestic life... He had his mind, his heart, his soul teeming at all times with great ideas for her advancement and glory, so that this noble, generous soul was well-nigh bursting with its exuberant riches; and can you believe that this was suddenly changed into a vain a paltry ambition of winning renown on the battle-field? Why, his views were as such above all littleness as the heavens are above the earth!"

"I speak what I do know, when I affirm that the complexion which this war was to assume was known to him long before it burst upon our country. We had studied together for years the gathering elements; we had analyzed them; we had seen in them the ripening germs of irreligion, of unbelief, of ungodliness, of corruption, of cruelty, of license, which have since distinguished them, and we came long since to the deliberate conclusion that it was a struggle against which not only the State but the Church must do her utmost."

"What our brother did he always did boldly, fearlessly, openly, in the face of God and man."

"During his conception and conduct of that glorious scheme of education, which will remain as his enduring monument, I was his chosen colleague and constant companion... He left nothing undone to ensure the success of his undertaking, and his enthusiasm and self-devotion were contagious. They spread to every one whom he approached, until his impulses animated all about him... Very fascinating were his manners, and that not from any art or design, but from the high-toned frankness of his nature and the noble feelings which welled up from his soul and from a fountain of truth and of purity. And during all this time, while he was so absorbed in his great purpose of linking education to the chariot-wheels of the Church, he never forgot the fresh spring of his conception, the author and designer of his plan. God was ever in his thoughts; Christ, the head of the Church, was ever upon is lips; the Holy Ghost, the enlightener of the understanding of men and the controller of their wills, was unceasingly invoked. Never was any step taken in this great work which was not preceded and accompanied by constant prayer. Never was any man approached whose co-operation was important, unless prayer preceded that approach. Every morning, ere he sallied forth upon his work, was the power of Christ called down to bless and forward his plan. Never was any enterprise more bedewed with the spirit of prayer."

"And as it was in his connection with his university plans, so was it likewise during his military career... Who can estimate the influence of such an act as that of our brother upon the cause which is so vital to every one of us? What could invest it with the higher moral grandeur than that a Bishop of the Church of God should gird on the sword to do battle for it?... And our brother thus became before even he had drawn his sword, a tower for strength to the Confederacy."

"And now let us commit his sacred dust to the keeping of the Church in the Confederate States until such time as his own diocese shall be prepared to do him honor. That day will come; I see it rise before me in vision, when this martyred dust shall be carried in triumphal procession to his own beloved Louisiana, and deposited in such a shrine as a loving, mourning people shall prepare for him. And he shall then receive a prophet's reward! His works shall rise up from the ashes of the past and attest his greatness! A diocese rescued from brutal dominion by the efficacy of his blood!--a Church freed from pollution by the vigor of his counsels!--a country made independent through his devotion and self-sacrifice!--an university sending forth streams of pure and sanctified learning from its exuberant bosom--generations made better and grander from his example and life, and rising up and calling him blessed!"

Reprint in New Orleans-

"June 26, 1864 - Preached in St. Paul's and Holy Trinity, Augusta…During my stay in that place it was a mournful gratification to me to be allowed to take place in the funeral services of my late Rt. Rev. Brother, the Bishop of Louisiana… Whether considered in his relations to his family - to society - to the Church- or to his Country, Bishop Polk was no ordinary man. Quick in his perceptions, prompt in action, energetic of will, with expanded views, with the highest sense of honor, with a penetrating knowledge of human character, with great power of controlling others, and with a heart as tender as it was brave, Bishop Polk possessed all the qualities that go to make up the man, the soldier and the Christian." -Bishop William Mercer Green, http://www.raymondms.com/history/bishop.htm

"Augusta was known as the South Atlantic cotton center and the second largest cotton market in the world in the early 1900s. Promoters labeled it 'The Lowell of the South.' In 1908, there were thirteen cotton mills employing over 6500 people and consuming 115,000 bales of cotton in the process. There was also a large market for the shipment of cotton seed for planting (Augusta Chamber of Commerce 1908). There are many Augusta postcards with cotton related themes. -Joseph M. Lee III, AUGUSTA IN VINTAGE POSTCARDS, 1997

"The most striking example of government [Confederate] enterprise was Augusta, Georgia. There were constructed the world's second largest powder mill, a factory with 1500 women employees making army uniforms, shops that made uniforms and shoes for the navey, an arsenal, a cannon foundry, and a giant military bakery. Richmond, Selma, Macon, and Atlanta were other such centers. A military industrial system had been built from scratch." -Ludwell H. Johnson, NORTH AGAINST SOUTH: The American Illiad 1848-1877, 1978,1993

Confederate Monument, downtown Augusta, GA,
city site of second funeral and first grave of Bishop-General Leonidas Polk, C.S.A.

"Women also took charge of local efforts [Augusta, Georgia] to erect a monument to the Lost Cause, a goal finally achieved with the erection of a Confederate Monument at the center of Broad Street. Costing more than twenty thousand dollares, the monument featured the marble image of a lone Confederate soldier atop a tall shaft, with figures- all carved in Italy- of four Confederate generals below. It was unveiled with great fanfare before an estimated crowd of ten thousand in 1878. -Kathleen Clark, "Making History," Cynthia Mills and Pamela H. Simpson, MONUMENTS TO THE LOST CAUSE: Women, Art, and the Landscapes of Southern Memory, 2003

(Generals at monument's base: Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, William H. T. Walker, T.R.R. Cobb, and Robert E. Lee.)