12th United States President, United States Army Major General. He was elected as the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Born into a prominent planter family, his father rose to Lieutenant Colonel in the Contiental Army during the American Revolution. His family migrated west, settling near what is now Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River. Because there were no formal schools on the Kentucky frontier, he had a sporadic formal education. In May 1808, he joined the United States Army, receiving a commission as a 1st Lieutenant of the 7th Infantry Regiment and spent most of the following year in Louisiana. In November 1810 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and the following July he was sent to the Indiana Territory to take control of Fort Knox at present-day Vincennes, Indiana after its commandant had fled. During the War of 1812 he successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory from an Indian attack that was commanded by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. He gained recognition for his defense and received a temporary promotion to the rank of Major. In 1815, after the end of the war, he was returned to his permanent rank of Captain and he resigned from the Army, only to re-enter it again the following year after gaining a commission as a Major. He was placed in command of Fort Howard near present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin and in April 1819 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After spending the next 5 years in Louisiana, he was called to Washington, DC to work on an Army committee to consolidate and improve military organization. In May 1828 became commander at Fort Snelling in Minnesota on the northern Mississippi River for a year, and nearby Fort Crawford for a year. In April 1832 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment and participated in the Black Hawk War. By 1837, the 2nd Seminole War was underway when he was directed to Florida. He defeated the Seminole Indians in the Christmas Day Battle of Lake Okeechobee, which was among the largest US-Native American battles of the 19th century. In recognition of his success, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and placed in command of all American troops in Florida, a position he held for the next two years. His reputation as a military leader was growing, and with it, he began to be known as "Old Rough and Ready." In May 1841 he became commander of the 2nd Department of the US Army's Western division that ran west from the Mississippi River and south of the 37th parallel north, with his headquarters in Arkansas. In anticipation of the annexation of the Republic of Texas, which had established independence in 1836, he was sent to Fort Jesup, Louisiana in 1844 to guard against any attempts by Mexico to reclaim the territory. He served there until July 1845, when annexation became imminent, and President James K. Polk directed him to deploy into disputed territory in Texas. He selected a spot at Corpus Christi, and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring. After the Mexican War began in May 1846, he commanded the American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma, defeating the Mexican forces, which greatly outnumbered his own. These victories made him a popular hero, and within weeks he received a brevet promotion to the rank of Major General and a formal commendation from Congress. The following September he inflicted heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey and afterwards half of his army joined General Winfield Scott's forces as they besieged Veracruz. When Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna discovered that Taylor had contributed all but 6,000 of his men to the General Scott’s effort, he resolved to take advantage of the situation and attacked with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847 with Taylor's forces prevailing. Remaining at Monterrey until November 1847, he returned to the Louisiana and his former command, receiving a hero's welcome in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Having never revealed his political beliefs or previously voted, in 1848 he received the nomination for President as a member of the Whig Party and selected New Yorker Millard Fillmore as his Vice Presidential running mate. The ticket went on to defeat Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate and Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate. In January 1849 he resigned his Western Division command and began to form his Administration. As President, distanced himself from Congress and his Cabinet, even in the face of the growing sectional crisis over slavery. He was against the expansion of slavery into newly formed territories, despite his Southern birth and his own slaveholder status. This stance help contribute to the Compromise of 1850, which delayed the section conflict but satisfied no one. After attending the 1850 July 4th celebration and fund-raising event at the Washington Monument (under construction), he reportedly consumed raw fruit, probably cherries, and iced milk and over the course of the next few days, he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment. The identity and source of his illness are the subject of historical speculation. After contracting a fever, he soon died at the age of 65, the 2nd United States President to die in office. He was temporarily interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC until October 1850 when his body was transported to the Taylor Family plot where his parents were buried, on the old Taylor homestead plantation known as 'Springfield' in Louisville, Kentucky. In May 1926 his remains and those of his wife were moved into their final resting place, the newly constructed Taylor mausoleum nearby. Almost immediately after his death, rumors began to circulate that he was poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners, and similar theories persisted into the 20th century. In the late 1980s a former professor at University of Florida, persuaded his closest living relative to agree to an exhumation so that his remains could be tested and in June 1991 he was exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner. Samples of hair, fingernail, and other tissues were removed, and radiological studies were conducted. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee revealed no evidence of poisoning, as arsenic levels were too low. The analysis concluded he had contracted "cholera morbus, or acute gastroenteritis", as Washington DC had open sewers, and his food or drink may have been contaminated. He was honored with a US postage stamp in 1875, 1938, and 1986, and the Presidential dollar coin in 2009. He was the last US President to own slaves while in office. His youngest child and only son, Richard Taylor, was a Confederate general during the American Civil War and his second child, Sarah Knox Taylor, married future Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1835 but died of malaria shortly after their marriage.
Bio by: William Bjornstad