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If Polk could have forseen the decline of his personal fortunes in
the military, if he could have faced sooner the pathetic inadequacy of the
man who was his commanding officer for the greater part of the war, he might
have insisted on the resignation. Geveral Braxton Bragg was a great organizer
and trainer of men. His Army of Tennessee was always ready to fight, but
invariably the commander let pass the opportunity for attack. His frustated
lieutenants, included Forrest, Wheeler, Hardee, Polk, Cheatham, and Kirby-
Smith, contended with varying degrees of feeling that the favoritism shown
Bragg by Davis was a tragic mistake. Generals Polk and Bragg, after dis-
agreeing in Kentucky, had an open argument at Chickamauga in 1863. Bragg
preferred charges. Polk, supported by fellow generals, was vindicated.
Bragg resigned after the unexpected and disasterous defeat at Missionary
Ridge where he thought his defenses impregnable.

Polk comanded the Army of Mississippi in its various junctions with
the Army Tennessee, taking part in the actions at Stone's River, Tullahoma,
Chickamauga, Meridian, and finally Atlanta, where on a summer morning in
1864, observing the federal lines near Kennesaw, he was struck down.

William Mecklenburg Polk's two-volume biography of his father has
a curious emphasis: one volume for fifty-five years of Polk's life and
one volume for the final three. His father had been grievously misused in
the war. The son's purpose was to make a case for Polk's military genius.
After reading his evidence, one feels that Leonidas Polk as head of the
Army of Tennessee might have done what Lee did in Northern Virginia.

The massive argument, however, leaves one still asking the question,
"So what?" Polk's military career can only be called a blunder in an other-
wise near-perfect life. He might well have won battles, or even a war, but
Leonidas Polk deserves a better fate than to be the patron saint of schism.

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