Civil War Confederate Broadside Announces General Polk's Proclamation of Pardon for Absent Soldiers"The Lieutenant-General Commanding...offers a pardon to all soldiers of this Department absent from their commands."
  This broadside from Department Commander Leonidas Polk offers pardon to any soldiers in Mississippi willing to return to their commands to fight for the Confederacy.
  LEONIDAS POLK, "A Proclamation to all Soldiers in this Department Absent from their Commands without Leave." Printed Broadside, April 16, 1864, Demopolis, Alabama. 1 p., 9" x 11.25"
  Excerpts "The Lieutenant-General Commanding has had presented to him a petition signed by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Legislature of Mississippi, setting forth that a large number of men now absent from their commands in this Department, who in a moment of weakness were induced to abandon their duty and desert their colors, have seen reason bitterly to regret their want of fidelity and are anxious to return."
  "The Lieutenant-General Commanding is free to say, that the experience of the past in this and other armies of the Confederacy, is not favorable to the expediency of the measures proposed. He is nevertheless willing, in deference to the wishes of so large a body of influential citizens, to add one more effort to the list of those already made to recover those misguided men, and restore them to the service of their country."
  "The Lieutenant-General Commanding, therefore by this Proclamation offers a pardon to all soldiers of this Department absent from their commands (including exchanged and paroled prisoners), who shall within ten days after having knowledge of this Proclamation, report for duty to their respective commands, or to the Commanding Officer of the Post at Meridian, Mississippi."
  "The Lieutenant-General Commanding desires to add the expression of the hope, that this last opportunity now presented for wiping out the disgrace which attaches to the characters of these men, and must follow and brand their posterity after them, will be availed of by them, and that he will thus be relieved from the painful duty of making examples of those who in contempt of the claims of their country upon their services, and in defiance of all law, have not only deserted their standards, but, by banding themselves together, have rendered the property and lives of peaceable citizens insecure, and reduced society to the condition of lawlessness and violence."
  Historical Background During the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate armies were plagued by deserters. When the Confederate Congress passed the first Conscription Act in April 1862, it more clearly defined the boundaries of loyalty and duty. Desertion became an act of disloyalty, punishable sometimes by death. Some commanders executed habitual deserters, and detachments of troops sometimes patrolled the countryside rounding up deserters. In some areas, deserters banded together to resist capture by the government.
  Polk did not rely simply on this offer of pardon to reclaim deserters. Ten days after issuing this proclamation, Polk wrote to Major General Stephen D. Lee, "I note what you say of sending Ferguson's brigade in pursuit of stragglers and deserters. I have ordered Major-General French to send an infantry command through all the counties of North Alabama to co-operate with General Ferguson, and I now desire you to give orders to General Roddey to deploy enough of his command along the line of the Tennessee River, as near as he may think proper, to intercept such tories and deserters as may attempt to escape into the enemy's lines that way. The movement of Ferguson and the infantry will drive such of them on to Roddey's troops as are not caught. I desire these movements should be made with vigor, and that they should cover the infected districts thoroughly. The best results are following upon like operations in the southern counties of Mississippi, and under other commands at work under Forrest &c., in the north, west, and east of that State. Over 1,000 men have been moved out."
  On June 11, just days before his death, General Polk wrote to a member of his family, "The results following upon the measures of my administration of the Department of Mississippi, in arousing the public mind and getting up and stirring out the men who had deserted from their commands, have been in the highest degree gratifying. It is believed that those measures have put into the field at least 5000 men who were lost to the Confederacy...."
 
  Leonidas Polk (1808-1875) was born in North Carolina and was a second cousin of later President James K. Polk. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1827, but soon resigned his commission to enter the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He married Frances Ann Devereux in 1830, and they had eight children who survived to adulthood. Ordained a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1831, Polk moved to Maury County, Tennessee where he established a plantation. By 1840, he owned 111 slaves and built a family chapel with his brothers. He became Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in 1838 and Bishop of Louisiana in 1841. He was the leading founder of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1857. At the beginning of the Civil War, Polk helped to form the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, and offered his services in the Confederate Army. He received a commission as major general in June 1861, though he proved to be a poor general, arguing with both superiors and subordinates. He commanded a corps in the Army of Mississippi in 1862 and gained promotion to lieutenant general in October 1862. He commanded a corps in the Army of Tennessee through much of 1863, and then commanded entire departments that included much of Mississippi. In May 1864, he received orders to aid General Joseph E. Johnston in resisting General William T. Sherman's advance into Georgia. While Polk, Johnston, and other offices were scouting enemy positions near Marietta, Georgia, on June 14, 1864, Sherman directed artillery fire at the group. A shell aimed at the group struck Polk directly, killing him instantly.
 
 
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