Zachary Taylor, bless his heart, was actually an easy library find. Meaning I went to one library and there he was, tucked away between the heavy hitters, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, so I felt pity and took him home with me.
I know a little about him from the Polk bio but really have no clue as to who, besides a general and a president, Zachary Taylor was. To discover more about him, I turned to Zachary Taylor: The American Presidents Series by John D Eisenhower (New York: Times Books,2008) and was able to satisfy my curiosity on this point.
Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784 in Orange County, Virginia to a well-to-do family. His father had a served as an officer in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and as a reward for this service, he was granted a parcel of land near Louisville, Kentucky. When Zach was only 18 months old, Mr. Taylor Sr moved the entire family out to his new land on the edge of the frontier. “As a result, Zachary grew up in an atmosphere where danger was accepted” (p. 2). Growing up, Zachary had little education but became a competent farmer and businessman like his father.
In 1808, at the age of 23, Taylor joined the army as a first lieutenant where he spent some time in New Orleans. Soon though he was granted leave of absence for his marriage to Margaret Mackall Smith on June 21, 1810.
Returning to active duty, he was sent north to face the Indians. However, due to a court martial in which Taylor had to testify in Baltimore, he missed the very crucial Battle of Tippecanoe and all the inherent prestige. The United States soon was entrenched in the War of 1812 and yet Taylor only played a minor role. He won a victory at Fort Harrison and then was later sent on to fight the Indians on the Mississippi River. “Though Taylor was probably unaware of it, his success at Fort Harrison represented the first victory attained by the American armed forces since the outset of the war the previous June” (p. 11). All these years in the army though could not save his job when the war ended. Taylor was demoted, not through any fault of his own but simply due to the decrease in the size of the army, and instead of living with a lesser rank, he retired to his plantation in Louisville.
Life as a gentleman planter was decidedly not the life for Zachary Taylor. “Cheery words such as those soon began to fade, however, as the routine life of a gentleman farmer wore thin” (p. 17). Filled with ennui, Taylor returned to the army in May 1816 as a full major. By 1819, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was even able to meet the current President of the United States, James Monroe, on his tour of the West. Tragedy followed when a terrible outbreak of malaria hit and Taylor’s three-year-old daughter, Octavia, died while Margaret, Taylor’s wife, stayed ill for months.
The next decade was characterized mainly by Taylor marking-time in the army. “The decade between 1820 and 1830 saw Taylor performing standard duty for the army on the frontier” (p. 19). In 1832, Taylor was ordered to serve in the Black Hawk War, which pitted ever encroaching American frontiersmen against the beleaguered, yet angry Indians near the Mississippi River. A few years later, in 1836, Taylor was promoted again; this time to full colonel.
1837 was a big year because it meant that Taylor, along with being sent to Florida in response to the 2nd Seminole War, was promoted to brevet brigadier general and on an unrelated basis, nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready” by his men. Taylor was renowned for sharing every experience his men did and they respected him for it—thus the nickname.
The 2nd Seminole War, though, was not an unparalleled success for Taylor bu neither had it been for any other American commander. “The Second Seminole War was one of the least noted and yet costliest and most frustrating ‘wars’ the United States Army ever fought against the various Native American tribes. One general after another failed to bring the Seminoles to the knees. Careers would have been shattered had not all the other prominent generals encountered failure as well” (p. 25).
The election of 1844 ushered James K Polk into the highest office in the land, along with his heavy agenda of acquiring Texas and California from the Mexicans. He had tried to purchase Texas from Mexico but they simply weren’t having it and it looked like war was the only option. In anticipation of any Mexican funny business along the border, Polk sent a portion of the army under Taylor to Corpus Christi. “The selection of Corpus Christi as the place for Taylor’s army was fraught with political significance. With Texas joining the Union a foregone conclusion, the question still remained as to the boundary between Texas and Mexico. The Mexicans contended that the boundary ran along the Nueces River; the Texans, however, claimed an additional strip of land 150 miles wide, placing the border on the Rio Grande” (p. 31-32). Needless to say, Corpus Christi was on the Rio Grande and therefore inside the disputed territory.
After setting up an effective beachhead there and making sure his supply lines were clear, Taylor was able to move his army further inland, closer to Matamoros. Secretary of War, William Marcy, ordered this move and Taylor was happy to comply. “Marcy’s order admonished Taylor not to initiate hostilities with the Mexicans unnecessarily, but it allowed him to judge for himself if the Mexicans had done so” (p. 36). Inevitably, the Mexicans did initiate hostilities and the war officially began. A Mexican cavalry detachment crossed the river and ambushed Taylor’s advance guard. Taylor sent a message to Washington that said “Hostilities may now be considered as commenced” (p. 44). A declaration of war ensued from an obliging Congress.
The Battle of Palo Alto, May 8th 1846, was not much of a fight, per se, as it was a psychological contest…and we won it. Taylor’s tactics so got into the head of the Mexican general, Arista, that Arista ordered a retreat even though neither side was a decisive winner. “Despite the lack of decisive maneuver, the battle of May 8 had been more important than either side realized. Most of the results were psychological” (p. 48). It was only a matter of time for Taylor to comprehend that now was the moment to strike and he immediately made his plans to invade Mexico. “His general plan was simple. First, he would cross the Rio Grande and occupy Matamoros; then he would move on to Monterrey, the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, due west of Matamoros” (p. 53-4). Taylor had no problem wrapping up Matamoros and soon had moved on to bigger game—Monterrey. Upon reaching that city, Taylor saw that the enemy was ready for them and had prepared their best defense but he knew what to do and over five solid days of fighting, Taylor eked out the victory and the city was his.
Back in Washington, Polk was livid. He had specifically sent word to Taylor not to invade; that his would be a defensive posture. Raging inwardly, he instead found that he had to promote Taylor to the rank of major general. Zachary Taylor had become a national hero and the nation wanted him recognized.
The war was not yet over for Taylor however. It was decided that General-in-Chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, would leave on an overseas expedition to take the war to the heart of Mexico. Landing at Veracruz, Scott won a brilliant victory there and then, commandeering most of Taylor’s seasoned men, he moved on to conquer Mexico City itself. Taylor was left with fewer men than ever before and beset by the Mexican army coming up from the rear. He took his stand at Buena Vista but was almost immediately hard pressed. “’General,” he [Wool] said, “we are whipped.’ Taylor was unusually sharp. ‘That is for me to determine,’ he snapped. He then sent the Mississippi Rifles forward to stem the flow of retreating Americans—which it did—and then settled into his customary position for directing a battle, sidesaddle on Old Whitey, chawing on a plug of tobacco” (p. 69-70). Eventually, Taylor had the battle under control and soon the Mexicans were in a rout. “That attack provided grist for the mill of Taylor’s reputation as a cool, imperturbable commander” (p. 70).
The war was pretty much over but it would take nearly a year for the Mexican and United States governments to sign a practical treaty. While the political battles were raging, Taylor took leave and went home. It was there that several prominent Whigs found him and led him to understand that he was in a very good position for a presidential campaign. His reputation couldn’t be higher and what’s more, he had no political baggage (in comparison to other nominees). After taking his sweet time in consideration, Taylor allowed his name to be offered up as the Whig nominee for the 1848 presidential election. He found himself running against Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren, the new Free Soil Party candidate. Old Zach won in a very tight race.
With Millard Fillmore as his vice president, Old Rough and Ready was the 12th President of the United States. In the summer of 1849, he took a tour of the Northeast but became violently ill. He was so sick, in fact, that his wife was summoned away from the White House. While he eventually recovered, Taylor’s illness only foreshadowed what was to come.
The major issues of Taylor’s presidency began first and foremost with slavery of course. Taylor did not particularly care for the institution although he did use it. “A slaveholder himself, who intended for his own economic reasons to keep his property, he was personally opposed to the institution in principle. He would not disrupt the Union by trying to abolish slavery in states where it already existed, but he would not allow its expansion into the new territories” (p. 99). And therein lay the problem. For in this same year, men found gold in California and within months, California had the requisite number of people to apply for statehood. Not only that but when Polk signed the peace treaty with Mexico, the US received New Mexico as well and they also wanted to become a state. Both of these states wished to be admitted as free states which caused the Southern states to scream in protest.
And believe or not, the US was still having problems with Great Britain. After whipping them twice in the last fifty years, you would think that England would leave us alone but there they were with a commercial stranglehold over the entire Caribbean. Not to mention, Britain wanted a canal built in Panama, under their direction and ownership, and so they simply took over all the land at the entrance and the exit of the canal route, displacing the residents. (This area was called the Mosquito Coast, named after the Indian inhabitants, Miskitos). There was so much rangling going on over this area and about the Caribbean in general that the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was eventually signed, which basically stated that neither Britain nor the US would maintain any canal in the Western Hemisphere.
With death right around the corner for Old Zach, the Galphin scandal hit his cabinet and impugned his presidency with a furor. Back when Georgia was an English colony a certain Mr. Galphin was owed some money by the British government. However, the Revolutionary War intervened and so the state of Georgia pledged to redeem the amount he was owed. Unfortunately the state of Georgia was now completely broke and could not pay immediately. The situation was never resolved. The case finally came before Zachary Taylor’s cabinet and it was discovered that Galpin family was owed $191,352.89! The Secretary of the Treasury received this claim and consulted with the Attorney General who approved the payment. The problem would have been settled there except for the fact that the Galphin lawyer who was owed half the amount paid was none other than the Secretary of War George Crawford. People were irate over this situation as it looked like Taylor and his cabinet aided a fellow cabinet member into acquiring an enormous sum. The public outcry was so great that President Taylor was censured by Congress over the matter.
It could be that the stress of the situation was the cause of Taylor’s immediate decline thereafter. He had contracted some sort of infection and even though his four physicians dosed him with everything they could, including calomel and quinine, his condition worsened. On July 9, 1850, Zachary Taylor died.
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