Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/329



Tin Career of Leanidas /V/,-. 821

Begging you to assure the Fifth Company of the Washington Artillery of my remembrance of their admirable service in 1863 and 1864, in Mississippi and Georgia, and thanking you earnestly for the very agreeable terms of your letter, I am very truly yours,

J. E. JOHNSTON.

Can you send me a copy of Captain Johnson's account of the cap- ture of the Federal fort in Mill Creek Gap in the fall of 1864?

[From the New Orleans Picayune, January 7, 1894.]

THE CAREER OF LEONIDAS POLK. The Soldier Who Abandoned the Army for the Church,

And Became a General When the War Between the States Broke Out,

Earning a Reputation for Gallantry Which Survives Hostile Criticism

An Interesting Figure in American History.

The New York Tribune, eminently a Northern journal, in a re- view of Dr. William M. Folk's book on " Leonidas Polk, Bishop and General," says: In the far future, when the affairs of the present century may be viewed with philosophical indifference, it will perhaps occur to some student of mankind that the career of Leonidas Polk was of significance in the history of civilization. Such a student will be reminded that only certain periods have been marked by the ap- pearance, as warriors, of men of rank in any religious system. In Europe this phenomenon has hardly been observed since the close of the Middle Ages, and the tendency there of the Nineteenth century has been such as to give characteristic value to the case of Pius IX, who left a military career for the church. But if the coming philoso- pher should deem the example of Polk sufficient to put the civiliza- tion of the American slave States on a level with that of the mediaeval chivalric period, he should nevertheless not be allowed to overlook the fact that the bishop who became a general had earlier turned from military life to become a priest. Thus, if he resembled the bishops of feudal times in his old age, he was in youth as complete a symbol of modern tendencies as the Pope whose name has been cited. In