Richard Taylor Research Paper

Richard Taylor was a Confederate soldier. He followed after his dad’s footsteps and became a great man and one that many will remember. He made the Confederates proud by leading them to a lot of victories.

Richard Taylor was born on January 27th, 1826 near Louisville, Kentucky (Dictionary of American Biography). He was the son of Zachary Taylor, who was the 12th President of the United States, and he was the brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, who was the one and only president of the Confederate states (Civil War Trust). He spent most of his childhood in Louisville but since his father was in the military, it required them to move a lot. He received great education while being sent to different private schools in Kentucky and Massachusetts. He then went on to study at Harvard and Yale and then he graduated from Yale in 1845. He read a lot about military and classical history (American Civil War).

During the Mexican-American war, he joined his father’s army on the border, where he served as his father’s secretary. He was apart of campaigns that helped in the capture of Monterrey and victory at Buena Vista. He

started having early symptoms of Arthritis, so he took over his father’s Cyprus Grove cotton plantation in Natchez, MS. While being successful there, he convinced his father to buy the Fashion sugar cane plantation in St. Charles Parish, LA in 1850 (American Civil War). His father, Zachary Taylor, died late 1850’s and he took over both of the plantations that he owned. He soon married Louise Marie Myrtle Bringier on February 10, 1851 (Dictionary of American Biography).
In 1855, Taylor became the Louisiana Senator. He didn't care for much politics before then but since his father was very much involved, he felt he needed to serve. He was a Whig, then he was a Know-Nothing, then became a Democrat (Civil War Trust). The next two years his crops started failing and his debt increased. When the country began to go downhill because of the election of Abraham Lincoln, he went to the Louisiana secession convention where he voted in favor of leaving the Union (American Civil War). He was after appointed to lead the committee on Louisiana Military and Naval Affairs (American Civil War). He had the build and repair forts as one part of his role in the army.
In 1861, after the attack to Fort Sumter, Taylor went to Florida to visit a friend, General Braxton Bragg.

There his friend asked him to help train soldiers for the war (Civil War Trust). He was elected Colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry, which was fought at Bull Run (Civil War Trust). After that battle, he was promoted to brigadier general on October 21st. They then fought in the Seven Days’ Battles. But Taylor found out that he suffered from serious rheumatoid arthritis, and that limited the time he could do (Civil War Trust). From May to June, he served at battles like Front Royal, First Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic (American Civil War). Taylor’s arthritis conflicted a lot with all the battles and he started to miss some like Battle of Gaines’ Mill. While missing a lot of battles, he was still promoted to to Major General on July

28th.
Taylor was assigned command of the District of West Louisiana. His men were outnumbered by a lot but made some surprise attacks, captured arms, and destroyed Federal gunboats (Dictionary of American Biography). After the Red River Campaign, Taylor was promoted to lieutenant general and placed to command of the department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana (American Civil War, 1) On May 8, 1865, he was forced to surrender his army to US general Edward Canby. This was the last major army to be surrendered east of Mississippi. Taylor was then paroled on May 13, 1865 (Civil War Trust). He died on April 18, 1879 of dropsy in the middle of publishing his book Destruction and Reconstruction (Dictionary of American Biography).