Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Zachary Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia, and named after his grandfather. His family moved to Kentucky, near Louisville, where Zachary lived on a plantation and received an elementary level education. His family was prosperous and Zachary could have received more years of formal education, but he had never been a good student and had no desire to so. His goal was to become a soldier and that career was socially acceptable for the son of a planter.
At age 23, Taylor entered the army and fought against the Indians in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars. In the Mexican War, as a major general, Taylor distinguished himself by leading troops in capturing Matamaros, Monterey, and Victoria and by defeating Santa Anna overwhelmingly near the Rio Grande. Taylor earned the nickname "Old Rough and Ready." An interesting note is that future Confederate president Jefferson Davis served with Taylor in the war against Mexico.
Because of his outstanding military career, Taylor was perhaps the most popular man in the United States in the 1840s. Taylor was elected president on the Whig ticket in 1848. During his administration, tensions were continually present between the United States' pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions. Taylor himself, although reared on a Kentucky plantation and a Louisiana resident, was not a Southern sympathizer and was prepared to make war on any states leaving the Union. The Civil War did not come to pass during his administration, which lasted only two years. Ironically when the war did occur his only son served as a Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army.
Zachary Taylor died in the White House of bilious colic in July 1850, sixteen months after taking office. He was buried in Louisville, Kentucky. Vice-President Millard Fillmore succeeded him to the presidency.
Family Life
On June 21, 1810, near Louisville, Kentucky, Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith (1788-1852) from Calvert County, Maryland.
Margaret was a devoted wife and tolerated the many different posts her husband experienced during his early career days. It was during one of these posts that the Taylors decided to make Louisiana their home. They liked the quarters that the army provided for them outside Baton Rouge so well that they decided to make that their family's permanent base and became part of the fabric of life in Louisiana.
