(1806–64), U.S. religious leader and soldier. Born on April 10, 1806, in Raleigh, N.C., Leonidas Polk graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He was converted to Episcopalianism while an officer and was ordained in 1831. He was made missionary bishop of the Southwest in 1838 and bishop of Louisiana in 1841. Polk also helped found the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He served in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1864, fighting at Shiloh, Stones River, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga. He was killed while reconnoitering in Marietta, Ga.