Saint Paul's Church - Canterbury Fellowship (original) (raw)

Sword Over the Gown Sword Over the Gown The Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk by Connie Erickson (2003) after an earlier composition by E. F. Andrews (1900). Archives and Special Collections, The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. This image may not be used without permission from The University of the South.

Bishop Polk died at Pine Mountain, outside of present-day Marietta, on the morning of June 14, 1864. His body was taken down the mountain, and then by ambulance to Marietta, with his horse, Jerry, led riderless behind. That afternoon, he was taken by train to Atlanta, arriving early the next morning. There, he was placed in the chancel of the newly established St. Luke's Church, lying in state in an open casket in front of the altar. He was clothed in a gray Confederate uniform, with a cross of white roses resting upon his breast, and by the coffin's side lay his sword.

The church was filled by thousands of soldiers and citizens who came to pay tribute. The Revd Dr Charles Todd Quintard (Rector of St. Luke's Church, a physician, and a Chaplain attached to General Polk's staff; later, second Bishop of Tennessee and the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South), assisted by the Revd John Watrous Beckwith of Demopolis, Alabama (later, second Bishop of Georgia), conducted a service at noon, followed by an "eloquent and impressive eulogy." Afterwards, a military escort placed the bishop's body in a field-ambulance, taking him to the train station. He was accompanied by members of his personal staff, many officers of the Army, and by citizens.

At dawn the next day (June 16), the rectors, wardens, and vestry of the churches of the Atonement (The Revd William H. Harison) and Saint Paul's (The Revd William H. Clarke) met the body at the train station, taking him to Saint Paul's, where an honor guard received him. He remained at the church for two days, in a leaden coffin, and was taken to the City Hall, where he lay in state until June 29.

In consultation with members of Bishop Polk's family and with the Rt Revd Stephen Elliott (Bishop of Georgia and Senior Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America), it was decided to commit his remains to the keeping of the Diocese of Georgia until the Church of Louisiana should claim them as her rightful inheritance.

The following invitation was accordingly issued:
"The Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States, the officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, and the citizens generally, are invited to attend the funeral services of the Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk, D. D., from the City Hall of Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday, the 29th of June. The procession will move from the City Hall to St. Paul's Church. His remains will be deposited in the church-yard of St. Paul's until the war closes.
STEPHEN ELLIOTT,
Senior Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the C. S. A."

On June 29, the feast of St Peter the Apostle, the military force of Augusta, consisting of one full regiment of infantry, a battery of light artillery, and a company of cavalry, was drawn up on Telfair St. at the rear of the City Hall. Since dawn, cannons had been firing on the half hour. At 9:30am, the case enclosing the body, draped in the Confederate flag (with its broad folds of white and its starry cross of Trust and Truth upon a field of blood) and covered with wreaths of laurel and bay, and a cross of evergreen and snow-white flowers, was brought and placed upon the hearse by the guard of soldiers. The military escort (under Major I. P. Girardey), headed by the Palmetto Band, now began the solemn march, the "Funeral March" from Chopin's Second Piano Sonata. The colonel commanding the post, and the Mayor of the city rode on horseback, immediately preceding the hearse.

Wardens and vestrymen, representing Saint Paul's Church, Augusta, St. John's, Savannah, and the Church of the Atonement, Augusta, marched on either side as pall-bearers. After them (under the direction of Captain Charles. A. Platt, a local funeral director) came the military family of General Polk, the clergy, officers of the Army and Navy, civil officers of the Confederate government, city authorities, members of the medical and legal professions, and other citizens. The procession moved to Saint Paul's, through streets thronged with a multitude who had come to pay loving homage to the Christian soldier. All places of business were closed; no sound was in the air save the dirges of the band and the tolling bell of Saint Paul’s Church.

As the procession came down Reynolds St., approaching the church, the bishops of Georgia (The Rt Revd Stephen Elliott), Mississippi (The Rt Revd William Mercer Green), and Arkansas (The Rt Revd Henry C. Lay), in their full vestments, with a company of surpliced priests, moved from the vestry room of the church down the avenue, which was flanked by the files of soldiers detailed as the guard of honor. Meeting the body at the gate, they turned and in fitting order preceded it into the church, which was decorated only with snow-white flowers in the baptismal font.

The service would have been taken from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, making it simple to reconstruct from that, and from descriptions of the service. The Senior Bishop (Bishop Elliott of Georgia) escorted the body into the church, using the words of the burial service, “I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord.” Approaching the chancel, the bishops and the Rector of Saint Paul's entered within the rail, the attendant priests took place on either side outside the rail, and the body was placed at the foot of the steps.

The anthem, "Lord, let me know mine end," was chanted by the choir to the solemn accompaniment of the church's new Jardine organ. After the Bishop of Arkansas read the Lesson, "O death, where is thy sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:20-58), the people united in singing three stanzas of William Augustus Muehlenberg’s then-familiar hymn, "I would not live alway." Then the senior bishop, in the presence of the vast assemblage gathered within and around the church, delivered the Funeral Address, giving as his text, "The Master is come and calleth for thee" (John 11:28). From beginning to end it was the outpouring of a great, noble spirit, which to this day stirs the hearts of all who heard it. It came as if bursting from the depths of a brother's soul, who, himself student, sage, orator, cast it in anguish before the people. No man had ever truer tribute, and if Leonidas Polk had done no more than win such love, such devotion, from so great, so grand a man as Stephen Elliott, he would not have lived in vain.

At the close of the address, the body, under military escort of the Silver Greys (militiamen over the age of 45), preceded by the bishops and priests, was carried to the grave prepared behind the chancel window in rear of the church. (Later renovations to the church extended the chancel so that the gravesite rested beneath the chancel rail. In the present 1918 building, the gravesites are located in a crypt under the altar.)

The Crypt
The Original Resting Place of Bishop and Mrs Polk, Saint Paul's Church, Augusta

The Senior Bishop pronounced the sentences, "Man that is born of woman," continuing with the form of commitment of the body to the ground, and the sentence, "I heard a voice from heaven." As he uttered the words, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," earth was cast upon the body by the Bishop of Mississippi, the Bishop of Arkansas, and Lieutenant-General James Longstreet of the Army of Virginia (who had lived in Augusta in his childhood, attending Richmond Academy, and who was in the city recuperating from an injury), and then, amid the concluding words of the services of the church, the guns of the light artillery battery, stationed at the foot of Washington Street, gave forth the last salute to the soldier-bishop.

The Bishop of Mississippi concluded the services with the Lord's Prayer, the first prayer in the order for the burial of the dead [presumably, "Almighty God, with whom who live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord"]; the prayer, "O God, whose days are without end," the prayer for persons in affliction, and the apostolic benediction.

Bp. Polk's wife, Frances Ann Devereux, was buried beside him in 1873. In May 1945, their remains were transposed to Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans. Their original grave markers remain in the crypt at Saint Paul's, which can be visited with permission from the church office. Bishop Polk's marker has the inscription, "He tried to do his duty," a prevalent slogan of that era.

His son, William Mecklenburg Polk, gave Saint Paul's a monument, made of Caen marble, set into the liturgical east wall of the sanctuary.

Sources

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