, twelfth president of the
United States, born in Orange County, Va., September 24, 1784; died in the executive mansion, Washington, D. C., July 9, 1850. He was fifth in descent from James Taylor, who came to this country from Carlisle, on the English border, in 1658. His father, Col. Richard Taylor, an officer in the war of the Revolution, was conspicuous for zeal and daring among men in whom personal gallantry was the rule. After the war he retired to private life, and in 1785 removed to Kentucky, then a sparsely occupied county of Virginia, and made his home near the present city of Louisville, where he died. Zachary was the third son. Brought up on a farm in a new settlement, he had few scholastic opportunities; but in the thrift, industry, self-denial, and forethought required by the circumstances, he learned such lessons as were well adapted to form the character illustrated by his eventful career. Yet he had also another form of education. The liberal grants of land that Virginia made to her soldiers caused many of them, after the peace of 1783, to remove to the west; thus Col. Taylor's neighbors included many who had been his fellow-soldiers, and these often met around
his wide hearth. Their conversation would
naturally be reminiscences of their military life, and all
the sons of Col. Taylor, save one, Hancock, entered
the U. S. army. The rapid extension of settlements
on the border was productive of frequent
collision with the Indians, and almost constantly
required the protection of a military force.
In 1808, on the recommendation of President
Jefferson, congress authorized the raising of five
regiments of infantry, one of riflemen, one of light
artillery, and one of light dragoons. From the
terms of the act it was understood that this was
not to be a permanent increase of the U. S. Army, and many of the officers of the “old army” declined to seek promotion in the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen between the United States and Great Britain which caused serious anticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard the additional force authorized as a preliminary step in preparation for such a war. Zachary Taylor, then in his twenty-fourth year, applied for a commission, and was appointed a 1st lieutenant in the 7th infantry, one of the new regiments, and in 1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regiment, according to the regulations of the service. He was happily married in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert County, Md., who shared with him the privations and dangers of his many years of frontier service,
and survived him but a short time. The troubles
on the frontier continued to increase until 1811, when Gen. William H. Harrison, afterward president of the United States, marched against the stronghold of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe.
In June, 1812, war was declared against
England, and this increased the widespread and not
unfounded fears of Indian invasion in the valley of
the Wabash. To protect Vincennes from sudden
assault, Capt. Taylor was ordered to Fort
Harrison, a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and
with his company of infantry, about fifty strong, made preparations to defend the place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, knowing the smallness of the garrison, came, confidently counting on its capture; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigilance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to the assailants that when, in the following October, Gen. Hopkins came to support Fort Harrison, no Indians were to be found there about. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Capt. Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the following November,