| Richard Taylor (general) |
Article Index for Richard Taylor |
Website Links For Richard |
Information AboutRichard Taylor (general) |
|
Richard Taylor ( January 27 , 1826 – April 12 , 1879 ) was a Confederate General in the American Civil War . He was the son of United States President Zachary Taylor . LIFE Richard Taylor was born at the "Springfields" family estate near Louisville, Kentucky . Much of his early life was spent on the American frontier with his father Zachary, a U.S. Army officer. As a young man he attended private schools in Kentucky , Massachusetts , and Europe . Although starting his college studies at Harvard University , he graduated from Yale in 1845 . During the Mexican-American War , Taylor served as the military secretary to his father. After the war he was engaged as a sugar planter and in 1855 entered local politics when he was elected to the Louisiana Senate, in which he served until 1861 . When the American Civil War erupted, Taylor joined the Confederacy , was appointed Colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry, and served at the First Battle Of Bull Run . On October 21 , 1861 , he was promoted to Brigadier General and commanded a Louisiana brigade under Richard S. Ewell in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and during the Seven Days . Taylor was promoted to the rank of Major General on July 28 , 1862 , and after a brief assignment as a recruiting officer in Louisiana, was given command of the tiny Confederate District of West Louisiana. In that capacity he humiliated Union General Nathaniel P. Banks by defeating him in the 1864 Red River Campaign with a smaller force, commanding the Confederate forces in the Battle Of Mansfield and the Battle Of Pleasant Hill . For these victories he received the official Thanks of the Confederate Congress, and on April 8 , 1864 , was promoted to Lieutenant General , despite having asked to be relieved because of his distrust of his superior in the campaign, Edmund Kirby Smith . Taylor was given command of the Department of Alabama and Mississippi and commanded the defenses of the city of Mobile, Alabama . He surrendered his department, the last Confederate force remaining east of the Mississippi , to Union General Edward Canby on May 8 , 1865 , and was paroled five days later. After the war, Richard Taylor wrote his memoirs, ''Destruction and Reconstruction''. He was active in Democratic Party politics, interceded on behalf of Jefferson Davis with President Andrew Johnson , and was a leading political opponent of Northern Reconstruction policies. He died in New York City and is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans . FAMILY Richard Taylor was the only son of Margaret Mackall Smith and of future President Zachary Taylor . His sister Sarah Knox Taylor was the first wife of Jefferson Davis , making Richard Taylor the brother in law of the Confederacy's President. His other sister, Mary Elizabeth Bliss , who had married William Bliss in 1848 , served as her father's White House hostess. Although Richard chose to serve the Confederacy, his uncle, Joseph Pannill Taylor , served on the opposite side as a brigadier general in the Union Army . Taylor and his wife Myrthe, whom he had married in 1851 , had two sons and three daughters. His wife died in 1875 . REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|