Tamerlane See timur.
Taylor, Zachary (1784–1850) American general,
12th president of the United States
Zachary Taylor—a second cousin to future president
James Madison—was born in Orange County, Virginia,
on 24 November 1784, the son of Colonel Richard Tay-
lor, who served under George Washington during the
Revolutionary War and afterwards held a series of minor
government offices. Soon after the birth of his son Zach-
ary, Colonel Taylor moved his family to Kentucky, where
he became a wealthy landowner; by the turn of the 19th
century, he owned large tracts of land and many slaves.
Zachary Taylor decided from an early age to follow
a military career. In 1808, he was given a commission in
the United States Army as a first lieutenant in the 7th
Infantry and was named commander of Fort Pickering,
now on the site of the city of Memphis, Tennessee. In
the next several years, he was given a number of gar-
rison assignments, and in 1810 he married the daughter
of a well-known Maryland family. He was sent then to
Louisiana, where he was given command of a fort near
Baton Rouge. When the War of 1812 began, Taylor was
promoted to captain and sent to fight the American In-
dian allies of Great Britain. He earned distinction when
he staved off a massive Indian attack against American
forces at Fort Harrison, Indiana; for this service, he
was brevetted as a major. In May 1814, he was given a
regular commission as a major; nevertheless, when the
war ended in 1815 and the military was demobilized
for peacetime, he was reduced in rank to captain. Tay-
lor decided at this point to leave the military and enter
civilian life as a farmer near Louisville, Kentucky, his
home. Within a year, however, he had tired of farming
and returned to the army, accepting the rank of major in
the 3rd Regiment in 1816. Three years later, he was pro-
moted to lieutenant colonel, and for the next 13 years he
was sent to various postings around the country.
In 1832, when the Black Hawk War broke out,
Taylor was given the command of the 1st Regiment.
This conflict was rooted in expanding tensions between
American settlers moving west onto Indian lands and
the Native Americans who wished to preserve their way
of life but whose lands were being taken from them.
Due to the overwhelming superiority of the U.S. Army,
the war soon ended at the battle of Bad Axe River (2
August 1832) when an Illinois militia force defeated a
combined army of Sac and Fox Indians in southwestern
Wisconsin.
Indian uprisings continued across the United
States, and Taylor was sent to Florida to suppress a revolt
by the Seminole in 1837. In a letter written on 20 July
1837 to General R. Jones, adjutant general of the army,