Sir, I am buckling the sword over the gown,'" indicating that he saw it was his duty as a bishop to take up arms. American Civil War Kentucky At the outbreak of the Civil War, Polk pulled the Louisiana Convention out of the Episcopal Church of the United States to form the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. Although he hoped that secession would result in a peaceful separation of the North and South, and suggested that he was reluctant to take up arms personally, he did not hesitate to write to his friend and former classmate at West Point, Jefferson Davis, offering his services in the Confederate States Army. Polk was commissioned a major general on June 25, 1861, and ordered to command Department No. 2 (roughly, the area between the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River). He committed one of the great blunders of the Civil War by dispatching troops to occupy Columbus, Kentucky, in September 1861; the governor of the critical border state of Kentucky had declared its neutrality between the Union and the Confederacy, but Polk's action prompted the Kentucky legislature to request Federal aid to "expel the invaders", effectively ceding it to Union control for the remainder of the war. During this period Polk argued about strategy with his subordinate, Brig. Gen. Gideon Johnson Pillow, and his superior, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate forces in the Western Theater. Resentful that his former West Point roommate was giving him orders, he submitted a letter of resignation to President Davis on November 6, but Davis rejected the request. Polk's command saw its first combat on November 7, 1861: the minor Battle of Belmont between troops under Pillow and Union troops under Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Polk was wounded nearby on November 11 when the largest cannon in his army, nicknamed "Lady Polk" in honor of his wife, exploded during demonstration firing. The explosion stunned Polk and blew his clothes off, requiring a convalescence of several weeks. Army of Mississippi In April 1862, Polk commanded the First Corps of Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh. He continued in that role for much of the rest of the year under Beauregard, who assumed command following the death of Johnston at Shiloh, and then under Gen. Braxton Bragg. At various times his command was considered a corps and at