Civil War Confederate Army Officer, Missouri Governor, US Senator. A relative of President James K. Polk, he was active in politics, serving as city counselor, delegate to the state Constitutional Convention and presidential elector. He was inaugurated as Missouri's Governor on January 5, 1857, but resigned after being elected by the Missouri General Assembly as a Senator from Missour in the United States Senate in the same year. Joining the Confederate army, the newly elected Polk served the Confederacy as a Colonel and judge advocate general of the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. He was captured and imprisoned at Johnson's Island for several months before being exchanged. Polk followed Generals Sterling Price and Jo Shelby to Mexico after the war, but soon returned to St. Louis to continue practicing law.
Civil War Confederate Army Officer, Missouri Governor, US Senator. A relative of President James K. Polk, he was active in politics, serving as city counselor, delegate to the state Constitutional Convention and presidential elector. He was inaugurated as Missouri's Governor on January 5, 1857, but resigned after being elected by the Missouri General Assembly as a Senator from Missour in the United States Senate in the same year. Joining the Confederate army, the newly elected Polk served the Confederacy as a Colonel and judge advocate general of the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. He was captured and imprisoned at Johnson's Island for several months before being exchanged. Polk followed Generals Sterling Price and Jo Shelby to Mexico after the war, but soon returned to St. Louis to continue practicing law.
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