Leonidas C. Houk enlisted as a private in August 1861 and was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry (Union) in February 1862, leading his regiment in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, including a hard-fought retreat from London, Kentucky, in August 1862. Failing health forced his retirement in April 1863. After the war he became a prominent East Tennessee Republican and U.S. Congressman, dying in 1891 after accidentally drinking arsenic mistaken for water.