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Leonidas Polk of the
Southwest

by NASH K. BURGER

ALTHOUGH TWO GRADUATES OF WEST
Point have become President of the United States, only
one has become a bishop. That one was Leonidas Polk,
Missionary Bishop of the Southwest, Bishop of Louisiana,
Confederate general. This well-born North Carolinian,
whose father and grandfather were officers in
the Continental Army and leaders in the formative
years of the American nation, chose to devote his life
not to seeking military glory, public office, or material
rewards but to the extension of Christ's kingdom on the
American frontier.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: A MISSIONARY

First and foremost, Leonidas Polk was a missionary to
the vast reaches of the Old Southwest (the lower
Mississippi Valley) and the new towns and villages
springing up in the wilderness. The settlers here were
largely of English and Scotch-Irish descent. Their for-

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