Zachary Taylor, most well known as the twelfth President of the United States was born at Montebello, Orange County, Virginia on November 24, 1784.  He was named after his paternal grandfather and his father's eldest brother.  Zachary grew up in a moderately well-to-do planting family and lived in a house that stands on slightly elevated ground on the north side of the Brownsboro Road around five miles out from Louisville (Dyer, 9).

Taylor's ancestor's trace back from Carlisle, England and settled on the Mattapony River in the 1630's.  James Taylor served on Governor SpotswoodÆs staff, accompanied him on the expedition to the Blue Ridge, and purchased land on the Rapidan River (Barnes, 2). Zachary Taylor (1707-1768), son of James Taylor, married Elizabeth Lee, established ôMeadow Farmö plantation, and acquired twenty-six slaves.  Richard, one of their four children, married Mary Strother, received a degree at William and Mary, became lieutenant-colonel of a Virginia regiment in the American Revolution, served in the Virginia Assembly, and settled at "Hare Forest" estate.  The third of their nine children, Zachary, was born a little while before the family moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1785 (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936).

Facts and details about Zachary's younger years aren't really well-known or abundant.  Partly because he made no speeches or and wrote few letters and memoirs about his early years.  He grew up with two older brothers, three younger brothers, and three younger sisters, yet he never played with any of them.  He had a neighbor by the name of George Croghan who he is frequently named as a playmate of Zachary's during his childhood years.  But since there was a seven year difference in their ages that prevented a close relationship (Dyer, 11).

Very little is known about Zachary's education as well.  For a brief period he was instructed by Elisha Ayer, a New England schoolmaster who set up a school in Louisville.  He says that Zachary showed qualities of stability, firmness, and studiousness (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936). Years later he studied with Kean O'Hara, a classical scholar who played an important role in Kentucky education.   The remainder of his education was received through his parents at home.  His mother was taught by tutors imported from Europe and his father was a cultured gentleman who studied partly at William and Mary College.  During the formative years though, he assisted his father on the plantation when tobacco was the crop that earned the most money.  The majority of the manual labor was done by the slaves, but he did the supervision and the special tasks.

Zachary lived with his parents at home until he was twenty-three years old and he joined the United States Army.  The army consisted of three thousand men but later increased to nine thousand which was part of the reason he entered the army.  He was one of the twenty-six Kentuckians recommended to the War Department by the Kentucky members of Congress.  Then on May 3, 1808, he was appointed first lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment of United States Infantry by President Thomas Jefferson and assigned to General James Wilkinson's command at New Orleans.  This would be the beginning of his military career of forty years.

Taylor had many military experiences that are worth mentioning because most of his life revolved around the army.  Two that are an important part of history would be his Garrison Duty and his contribution in leading out soldiers in the Mexican War.

In May 1816, President James Madison assigned Taylor as rank of major and sent him to the Wisconsin Territory to take command of the Third Infantry.  For the next fifteen years he was on garrison duty in Louisiana and Minnesota.  In 1832 he was promoted to colonel and during the Black Hawk War he was in charge of four hundred soldiers, under the command of General Henry Atkinson.  The Indian Chief Black Hawk surrendered and Taylor returned to Fort Snelling as commanding officer (Dyer, 69).

In 1837, Taylor was assigned to command the army fighting the Seminoles War in Florida.  On December 25, Christmas Day, he defeated them at Lake Okeechobee, where he was brevetted a brigadier general.  In May of 1833, he took charge of the department and was named "Old Rough and Ready" by his troops because of his muscular and stocky appearance (Dyer, 115).

His military involvement didn't end there, he was involved in the Mexican War which greatly influenced his reputation.  In the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biographies it stated that, "Taylor was ordered to correspond with the government of the Republic of Texas, then negotiating annexation to the United States, and to repel any invasion of Mexicans."  On January 1846, he went to the Rio Grande to claim the river as the boundary of Texas and later he built Fort Brown, which was across the Mexican town of Matamoros.

When the Mexican army attacked, Taylor didn't wait for Congress to declare war.  On May 8, 1846, at Palo Alto, he defeated a Mexican army that was three times the size of his own.  A big reason they were able to defeat them was because of the accuracy of his artillery.  The very next day he won the Battle of Resaca de la Palma and took over Matamoros.  After all this, President James K. Polk named him commander of the Army of the Rio Grande and Taylor was promoted to brevet major general.  Congress also rewarded him with two gold medals (Smith, 27).

In September 1846, Taylor went to Monterrey, Mexico with six thousand men and captured it, he also gave the Mexicans an eight week armistice.  President Polk and his administration criticized Taylor for his leniency toward the Mexicans but his growing popularity prevented them from replacing him with someone else.  Plus at this time, TaylorÆs name was being mentioned as the Whig nominee for president.  Because of that, the Democrat Polk reassigned half the troops to General Winfield Scott, who was to invade Mexico at Veracruz.  Polk also ordered Taylor to stay at Monterrey and stay on the defensive.  Taylor disobeyed his orders from Polk and went south until he ran into Antonio L pez de Santa AnaÆs Mexican Army of twenty thousand men.  On February 22-23, they fought the Battle of Buena Vista.  Many of Taylor's men retreated but his artillery was so strong that the Mexicans had no choice but to retreat.  Due to this victory, Congress gave Taylor another gold medal for his leadership but Polk continued to dislike Taylor.  In November of 1847, Taylor went home to campaign for his upcoming presidential run (Smith, 39).

In the fall of 1847, Taylor was becoming more and more interested and began to write his views on political issues.  In the book, Zachary Taylor-Soldier in the White House, it says that ôthe Whigs nominated Taylor on the fourth ballot, passing over Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Winfield Scott, even though Taylor had never even voted in a presidential election.  The Democrats chose Lewis Cass.  But because of a split in the Democratic party, Taylor carried New York State and thereby won the election.ö  People of the North voted for him because he was a war hero and people of the south voted for him because he was a slave owner.

Taylor took the oath of office on the east part of the Capitol on Monday, March 5, 1849.  One hundred marshals escorted the presidential carriage from Willard's Hotel to the Capitol.  Thirty thousand people came to the inauguration.  In his inaugural address, Taylor fought for military and naval effectiveness, friendly relations with foreign powers, Federal support of agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing, and ôcongressional conciliation of sectional controversyö.  Afterwards, a reception was held in the afternoon at the White House.  Three different inaugural balls were held, and Taylor attended all of them.  His vice-president was Millard Fillmore and his cabinet consisted of four southerners and none of the seven total were qualified or had real ability (Hamilton, 216).

As President, Taylor made decisions that didn't appeal to the southerners.  He, even though being a slave owner himself, supported the Wilmot Proviso which stated that there be no extension of slavery into the territory taken from Mexico at the end of the war.  He also encouraged California to become a free state just as he told New Mexico, even though there were Texas claimed all land east of the Rio Grande (Smith, 172). Due to all this, Southern Whigs all turned against Taylor and his party.  By opposing his old beliefs, a lot of tension and heat began to develop between Taylor and Texas.  Yet when talk of secession came up, he said, ôDisunion is treason.ö  This stand for his beliefs prevented secession and even could have delayed the Civil War (Smith, 183).

As far as foreign affairs go, Taylor didn't really understand and performed badly many times.  He, however, had one accomplishment which was the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which involved the English-American efforts to build an Isthmian canal (Hamilton, 343).

Taylor's life eventually came to an end on July 9, 1850 in Washington, D.C.  He died in office when he was sixty five years old and two hundred twenty seven days.  He died four days after attending the laying of the cornerstone of the George Washington Monument on July 4, 1850.  It is told that it was because he sat in the hot sun for hours while drinking ice water and cherries and iced milk.  The same night he had a cholera attack and died five days later.  He was eventually buried near Louisville, Kentucky.