General Zachary Taylor

“ In connection with General Taylor's military character may be mentioned his relations with his brother officers, and his soldiers. Terrible as he was to his country's enemies, no man was so little disposed to have difficulty with his friends. During the period of his life, dueling was a practice not quite uncommon among gentlemen in the peaceful avocations of life, and still more common among the officers of the Army and Navy, yet, so far as I can learn, a duel with [Pg 51] General Taylor has never been talked of. ”

“ He was alike averse to sudden and to startling quarrels; and he pursued no man with revenge. A notable and a noble instance of this is found in his conduct to the gallant and now lamented General Worth. A short while before the battles of the eighth and ninth of May, some question of precedence arose between Worth (then a Colonel) and some other officer, which question it seems it was General Taylor's duty to decide. He decided against Worth. Worth was greatly offended, left the Army, came to the United States, and tendered his resignation to the authorities at Washington. ”

“ Soon after this, and near this place, a small detachment of General Taylor's forces, under Captain Thornton, was cut to pieces by a party of Mexicans. Open hostilities being thus commenced, and General Taylor being constantly menaced by Mexican forces vastly superior to his own in numbers, his position became exceedingly critical. Having erected a fort, he might defend himself against great odds while he could remain within it ”

“ He inspired his men with his own courage and energy. The flames were extinguished, the consumed breast-works were renewed, and volley answered volley for six long hours till day break enabled the Americans to aim with a deadly precision that soon dispersed their foes. This gallant repulse, at odds so unfavorable, prompted a report from Major General Hopkins to Governor Shelby that "the firm and almost unparalleled defense of Fort Harrison had raised for Captain Zachary Taylor a fabric of character not to be affected by eulogy;" ”

“ Mr. Buchanan, you always pick out the prettiest ladies!" "Why, Mr. President," was the courtly reply, "I know that your taste and mine agree in this respect." "Yes," said General Taylor, "but I have been so long among Indians and Mexicans that I hardly know how to behave myself, surrounded by so many lovely women."
[Facsimile] ZTaylor ZACHARY TAYLOR was born in Orange County, Virginia, November 24th, 1784; never cast a vote or held a civil office until he was inaugurated as President, March 5th, 1849; died at the White House, after a few days' illness, July 9th, 1850. ”

“ The address was delivered in the City Hall in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, July 25, 1850. It was printed in one Chicago paper. It was set up from Lincoln's original manuscript, furnished for the purpose.
President Taylor died at Washington on [Pg 11] July 9, 1850. The disease was diagnosed as cholera morbus. A number of other distinguished men were sick in Washington at the same time and apparently with the same disease. The death of Taylor was a hard blow to the Whig Party. ”

“ History tells not of a battle more bravely contested and more nobly won: and well did the greatest warrior of the age, in learning it exclaim, "General Taylor's a general indeed!"
The victory of Buena Vista was the last and crowning achievement of General Taylor's military life. His department in Mexico was entirely reduced by it to subjection, and the subsequent operations of his army were few and unimportant. At the close of the war he retired from Mexico, carrying with him not only the adoration of his soldiers, but even the respect and attachment of the very people he had vanquished. ”

“ Brigham had roared, “standing there white and shaking at the hornets’ nest you have stirred up—you are a coward—and that is why you praise men that are not cowards—why you praise Zachary Taylor!”
Brigham had a little time before declared that Zachary Taylor was dead and in hell, and that he, Brigham, was glad of it.
“President Taylor you can’t praise,” he had gone on to the gradually whitening Brocchus. “What was he? A mere soldier with regular army buttons on—no better to go at the head of troops than a dozen men I could pick up between Leavenworth and Laramie. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This fruitless warfare exasperated the volunteers; they threatened to leave, and their officers had great difficulty in making them obey orders. On reaching a point in the Rock River, beyond which lay the Indian country, a company under Colonel Zachary Taylor refused to cross, and held a public indignation meeting, urging that they had volunteered to defend the State, and had the right, as independent American citizens, to refuse to go out of its borders. Taylor heard them to the end, and then said: "I feel that all gentlemen here are my equals ”

“ He was emphatically a hard-working officer: either from choice or accident, his public life was never varied by those terms of “official repose” which give officers a rest at Washington, at West Point, or at head-quarters in some large city.
On the contrary, General Taylor, from the time he entered the army as a lieutenant until he laid aside his 427well-earned commission as a Major-General to assume the highest responsibility of Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, had never been out of what might be termed the severest frontier duties. ”

“ When the men were all back in their places in line, the command to advance was given. As I looked down that long line of about three thousand armed men, advancing towards a larger force also armed, I thought what a fearful responsibility General Taylor must feel, commanding such a host and so far away from friends. The Mexicans immediately opened fire upon us, first with artillery and then with infantry. At first their shots did not reach us, and the advance was continued. As we got nearer, the cannon balls commenced going through the ranks. ”

“ On May 8, 1846, Taylor defeated him at Palo Alto with 2,300 men, and a few days later drove him from a new position at Resaca de la Palma across the Rio Grande. War was at once declared by Congress; 50,000 volunteers were called for; and Taylor was made a major-general, re-enforced, and ordered to invade Mexico. ”

“ The government appreciated, applauded, and rewarded the conduct and heroism of Taylor in this bloody conflict, and immediately promoted him to the brevet rank of brigadier general, and gave him the chief command of the war. On taking this command he fixed his head-quarters at Tampa Bay, and continued to prosecute what was termed “a war of movements,” with a vigor and enterprise which no ordinary energy of mind and body could have endured. The foe, after the lesson taught at Okeechobee, afforded him no subsequent opportunity of meeting them in a general battle ”

“ The armies of Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith are still left, and no one should give up the cause so long as there is an armed man in the field, and I feel that I would be disgraced if I should consent to such a course while we have an army ready to do battle, and our President is still firm and resolute, and even now perhaps with the army of his brother-in-law, General Taylor. A bold young North Carolinian, Lieutenant Hugh Randolph Crichton, in my division, openly denounces the precipitation of those who have agreed to swallow the detested oath. ”

“ No soldier could face either danger or responsibility more calmly than he. These are qualities more rarely found than genius or physical courage.
General Taylor never made any great show or parade, either of uniform or retinue. In dress he was possibly too plain, rarely wearing anything in the field to indicate his rank, or even that he was an officer; but he was known to every soldier in his army, and was respected by all. I can call to mind only one instance when I saw him in uniform, and one other when I heard of his wearing it, On both occasions he was unfortunate. ”

“ Some months passed before Taylor was in condition to advance again, his force being much depleted by reinforcements sent to General Scott. It was February, 1847, when he took the field once more, reaching a position south of Monterey known as Buena Vista, a narrow mountain pass, with hills on one side and a ravine on the other. This bold advance of an army not more than 5,000 strong seemed a splendid opportunity to Santa Anna, then commander-in-chief of the Mexican army, who marched on the small American force with 20,000 men. ”

“ This is the consolation which ministers of darkness impart to such destroyers as General and President Zach. Taylor was. If he had had any regard for the lives of his fellow beings and for their true happiness, he would have understood my documents and have done what was his duty for the destruction of the Beast, its image and the false prophet, which destroy every year an enormous amount of human life and property. Although I have mentioned in this treatise several strange facts, some of the following will appear more strange ”

“ Thus far the hostilities had proceeded when a formal declaration of war was made against Mexico by the United States. Clay and the Whigs strenuously opposed this action; but the administration party bore down all opposition. Volunteers now flocked, especially from the Southern States, to Taylor's standard; and in a few weeks he found himself at the head of a resolute though not very well disciplined force of nearly eight thousand men. Monterey, a fortified town of considerable importance, was held by about nine thousand Mexican troops. General Taylor's objective point was the City of Mexico. ”

“ During President Taylor's residency in the White House there were many illustrious men in the Senate and holding other high positions. The rivalries and jealousies in politics reached an alarming height, and as General Taylor was the victim upon whom was visited many attacks and much vituperation, his brave spirit finally succumbed, and he died July 9, 1850, surrounded by his deeply afflicted family. Accompanied by her daughter Mrs. Taylor obtained a home among her relations in Kentucky, but soon became very unhappy, because of the continued manifestations of sympathy. ”

“ Arms can only be controlled by arms. An armed nation only can keep up an army, and also maintain its liberty. The constitution of the United States, overlooking this undeniable truth, has placed both the raising an army, and the arming of the militia, among the potential attributes of the general government; whereas the first belonged to the principle of accumulation, and the latter to the principle of division. One, therefore, is a power, and the other a check upon that power. One is a foe, the other a friend to liberty. One strengthens the government, the other the nation. ”

“ It enabled General Taylor to form the volunteers who were left behind into an army of the second line, to drill and prepare them for future campaigns. Those whom he carried with him, he put through a course of six hours' drilling per day. Never was the value of disciplined men more triumphantly demonstrated; 4,759 men, of whom but 517 were regulars, at the battle of Buena Vista, defeated the entire Mexican army of 18,133 men, with 20 pieces of artillery. General Taylor, in his official report, comments upon the "high state of discipline and instruction of several of the volunteer regiments." ”

“ As soon as our piece was fired the balls of the enemy came down the street like a shower af hickory nuts.
General Taylor was in town entirely regardless of his person in the midst of danger. This was very imprudent and wrong. He even crossed the street where so many balls were continually passing, and crossed in a walk. A commanding officer ought to look out for himself and army better than that. Taylor was brave to the back bone, but imprudent. Capt Henry reminded him that he ought to retire to a safer position ”

“ As we lay in our tents upon the sea-shore, the artillery at the fort on the Rio Grande could be distinctly heard.
The war had begun.
There were no possible means of obtaining news from the garrison, and information from outside could not be otherwise than unfavorable. What General Taylor's feelings were during this suspense I do not know; but for myself, a young second-lieutenant who had never heard a hostile gun before, I felt sorry that I had enlisted. A great many men, when they smell battle afar off, chafe to get into the fray. ”

“ A strong and important position was carried, and eighteen hundred prisoners, with over five millions of dollars worth of stores, were captured. For some time the hope was indulged, that this success of General Taylor would compel the abandonment of the Federal siege of Port Hudson, and that Taylor could also make a successful diversion in favor of Vicksburg. This hope was disappointed, and Taylor, not having the strength to cope with the large force of the enemy sent against him, after the fall of the Mississippi strongholds, was forced to abandon the country which he had so gallantly won. ”