University of Virginia Library

ZACHARY TAYLOR,

Twelfth President of the United States, was born November 24, 1784,
and died July 9, 1850, aged 66 years.

His birth was in Orange county, Virginia, and he was a son of Colonel
Richard and Sarah (Strothers) Taylor, both parents of eminent
Virginia families. The Virginian Taylors were allied to the oldest
and most distinguished families in that State—the Madisons, the
Lees, the Pendletons, the Barbours, the Conways, the Gaineses, the
Hunts, the Taliaferros.

But the character of our twelfth President seems to have been
largely determined by the rude border life in which his childhood
and youth were passed. Battling with the hardships and dangers
of frontier life, rather than Virginia cultivation, stamped the character
of him who was to be known as "Old Rough and Ready."

In 1785, Colonel Taylor settled with his little family in Kentucky, in
what is now Jefferson county, two miles from the Ohio river, and five
miles from the present site of Louisville. Here young Zachary grew to

manhood, his earlier years spent in the acquisition of such book knowledge
as could be obtained; and his time, when he had grown old enough and
strong enough, given to the actual labors of the farm, where he worked
with his father until he was nearly twenty-four years old.

His book learning was confined to a knowledge of reading, writing,
spelling, and plain arithmetic, but during his boyhood's days he also
acquired a love for military life from the many border skirmishes with the
Indians of which he was a spectator, or in which he participated. His
instructor in the arts of warfare was one Whetsel, a noted border character,
who taught young Taylor how to load and "fire running." The latter
accomplishment Taylor never availed himself of.

May 3, 1808, Zachary Taylor received a commission as first lieutenant
in the 7th United States Infantry, and his regiment marched under Harrison
in his expedition against the Indians of the Northwest. Taylor was
now in active service until the close of the second war with England. In
the beginning of the year 1812, President Madison commissioned him captain,
and he was placed in command of Fort Harrison, on the Wabash.

Here he achieved the first of those brilliant victories which in after
years formulated the axiom, "Taylor never surrenders," on which his soldiers
enthusiastically relied. On the night of September 4, 1812, a band
of 400 Indians fell upon the fort, expecting to surprise it and massacre its
garrison. They succeeded, in the first onslaught, in firing the block-house,
in which the garrison's stock of whisky was stored, and it burned with uncontrollable
fury. Captain Taylor, then only twenty-eight years of age,
found himself shut up in a burning fort, with 400 savages outside its
walls, and only fifty men at his command, twenty-six of them sick with
malarial fever, and unfitted for duty. He calmed the women and children,
encouraged the men, directed the control of the flames, held the fort
and defeated the enemy. For this victory he was brevetted major by
President Madison.

In 1816, Major Taylor was ordered to Green Bay, and remained in command
of that post for two years. Then returning to Kentucky he passed
one year with his family, and was then ordered to New Orleans. In 1822
he superintended the erection of Fort Jesup; in 1824 was in the recruiting
service, then ordered to Washington, and thence to the South
again. He had been made lieutenant-colonel in 1819, and in 1832 was
promoted to the rank of colonel. The contest known as the "Black
Hawk War" opened in 1832, and Colonel Taylor commanded the expedition
which resulted in the defeat and capture of Black Hawk. His military
decision was shown in this campaign by his control of his own troops,
as much as by his action against the enemy. The pursuit of Black
Hawk's band had brought the troops to Rock River, the northwestern
boundary of Illinois. Here the militia, called out (as they claimed) to
defend their State, considered their services ended. The orders of Taylor
were to continue the pursuit with his "full army."

The militia held a sort of town meeting, at which Taylor was present.
Deceived by his quiet manner, the leaders of the movement for disbanding
grew insolent, and the spirit of mutiny was augmented by their inflammatory
speeches. When Taylor had listened to several of these gentlemen,
his own speech was ready: "Gentlemen, the word has been passed
on to me from Washington to follow Black Hawk, and to take you with
me as soldiers. I mean to do both. There are the flat boats drawn up on
the shore, and here are Uncle Sam's men drawn up behind you on the
prairie." The militia did not disband that day.

After the Black Hawk war, Colonel Taylor was in command at Fort Crawford,
Prairie du Chien, where he remained until, in 1836, his services were
required in Florida in the Seminole war. In Florida he won the battle of
Okee-chobee, January, 1838, and was promoted to brigadier-general. In
April, 1838, he was appointed to the command of the Florida troops, and
continued in that responsible position until he was relieved in April, 1840,
at his own request.

He was at once appointed to the command of the army of the southwest,
which comprehended the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas
and Louisiana, with headquarters at Fort Jesup, in the latter State.

The annexation of Texas, in 1845, and the consequent war with Mexico,
next called General Taylor into active service. He was ordered to the
frontier of Texas, and made his headquarters on the Rio Grande del Norte.

The war which followed terminated in success to the American arms and
independence for Texas, and recorded the name of General Taylor as victor
at Palo Alto, Reseca de la Palma, Monterey and Beuna Vista.

The battle of Beuna Vista was the last in which General Taylor engaged.
He returned to his home, now in his 63d year, to find that a portion
of the people desired to reward his services by making him the chief
magistrate of the nation. His own views upon accepting the honor tendered
him were expressed in a letter written before he left the seat of war.
He desired to be "elected by the general voice of the people, without
regard to their political differences." His want of knowledge of party
politics is explained, however, in the same letter. He says: "I have
never yet exercised the privilege of voting." The soldier had been too
busy all his life fighting for all America, to interest himself in any sectional
or party question.

He was nominated by the Whig convention at Baltimore, June 7, 1848,
and elected in the November following. His opponent was Lewis Cass,
of Michigan, and the electoral vote stood: Taylor, 163; Cass, 127.

The inaugural ceremonies were observed March 5, 1849, the 4th of
March that year falling upon Sunday. His administration of affairs extended
over very little more than a year, and was principally occupied in
long debates over the adjustment of the questions connected with the new
territory of the United States.

July 4, 1850, President Taylor attended some national demonstrations
in honor of the day, in his usual health and spirits. In the evening,
while overheated, he partook freely of fruits and iced water and
milk. Within an hour he was seized with cramps which took the form
of violent cholera morbus, and after lingering in terrible pain until the
end, death supervened at 1 p. m., July 9th.

Taylor married in 1810, and the wife of forty years knelt at his
death-bed with their weeping children about her, and his last unintelligible
word was an effort to speak to her once more. Of the four children
born of their union, three survived him and were present at his
death-bed, his only son, Colonel Taylor, and two daughters. One of
his sons-in-law was Jefferson Davis, who had served under him in
Mexico, and later became the president of the Confederate States. The
death of President Taylor was widely mourned; the people, who held
him second only to Washington, mourned a popular hero; the army
mourned "Old Rough and Ready." The loss to the Nation was the
loss of a sincere patriot and an honest man. A man of application as
well as of military genius, he has left an enduring record.