Half-length seated oversize albumen portrait of Lucius E. Polk. [Helena, Arkansas]: N.p., [March 1864]. Mount verso with Jefferson Davis caption. INSCRIBED BY POLK to mount recto: "Lucius. E. Polk / Brig Gen'l C.S.A., Helena Ark. / March 1864." 

Lucius E. Polk (1833-1892) was a planter in Helena, Arkansas, a nephew of Leonidas Polk (the "Fighting Bishop") and a distant relative of President James K. Polk. He enlisted as a private in the local militia company, the Yell Rifles, commanded by Patrick Cleburne, at the outbreak of war. The group became part of the 1st Arkansas Infantry. They first saw action at the Federal Arsenal in Little Rock, where they secured the contents for the Confederate Army. As a Second Lieutenant at the Battle of Shiloh, he was wounded in the face, and, shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Colonel of the 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment. He was promoted twice again, attaining the rank of Brigadier General on 13 December 1862. He fought at the Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta Campaign. In June 1864, he was severely wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and was honorably discharged. 

Polk was described by Sam Watkins in Co. Aytch: "In every battle he was engaged in, he led his men to victory, or held the enemy at bay, while the surge of battle was against us; he always seemed the successful general, who would snatch victory out of the very jaws of defeat. In every battle, Polk's brigade, of Cleburne's division, almost making the name of Cleburne as the Stonewall of the West." 

After the war, he embarked on a late-in-life political career, serving as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1884 and serving in the Tennessee Senate in 1887. 

A fine inscription from a hard-fought Confederate officer. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]

Image has been marked with later ink marks.