POLK, LEONIDAS (1806-1864), American general, was born at Raleigh, N.C., on April io, 1806. He was educated at West Point, but afterwards studied theology and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1831. In 1838 he became mis sionary bishop of the South-west, including Arkansas, Indian Ter ritory, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi ; in 1841 he was conse crated bishop of Louisiana. His work in the Church was largely of an educational kind, and he played a prominent part in move ments for the establishment of higher educational institutions in the South. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he resigned his bishopric and entered the Confederate army. His rank in the hierarchy and the universal respect in which he was held in the South, rather than his early military education, caused him to be appointed to the important rank of major-general. He fortified the post of Columbus, Ky., the foremost line of defence on the Mississippi, against which Brigadier-general U. S. Grant directed
the offensive reconnaissance of Belmont in the autumn. In the following spring, the first line of def'mce having fallen, Polk com manded a corps at Shiloh in the field army commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston and Beauregard. In Oct. 1862 he was promoted lieutenant-general, and thenceforward he commanded one of the three corps of the army of Tennessee under Bragg and after wards was in charge of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana. He was killed in the fighting in front of Marietta, while reconnoitring near Pine Mountain, Ga., on June 14, 1864.
See W. M. Polk, Leonidas Polk, Bishop and General (new ed., 1915). POLKA, a lively dance of Bohemian origin, which at one period (about the middle of the 19th century) enjoyed extra ordinary popularity throughout Europe. It is danced to music written in * time. (See DANCE.)