97 Facts About Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850.

Zachary Taylor died 16 months into his term from a stomach disease, thus having the third shortest presidency in US history.

Zachary Taylor was born into a prominent family of plantation owners who moved westward from Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky, in his youth; he was the last president born before the adoption of the Constitution.

Zachary Taylor was commissioned as an officer in the US Army in 1808 and made a name for himself as a captain in the War of 1812.

Zachary Taylor climbed the ranks of the military, establishing military forts along the Mississippi River and entering the Black Hawk War as a colonel in 1832.

Zachary Taylor then led his troops into Mexico, where they defeated Mexican troops commanded by Pedro de Ampudia at the Battle of Monterrey.

Zachary Taylor's troops were transferred to the command of Major General Winfield Scott, but Zachary Taylor retained his popularity.

At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Zachary Taylor defeated Winfield Scott and former Senator Henry Clay for the party's nomination.

Zachary Taylor won the general election alongside New York politician Millard Fillmore, defeating Democratic Party nominees Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler, as well as a third-party effort led by former president Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams Sr.

Zachary Taylor became the first president to be elected without having previously held political office.

Zachary Taylor was the third of five surviving sons in his family and had three younger sisters.

Zachary Taylor was a member of the famous Lee family of Virginia, and a third cousin once removed of Confederate General Robert E Lee.

Zachary Taylor's family forsook its exhausted Virginia land, joined the westward migration and settled near future Louisville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River.

Zachary Taylor grew up in a small woodland cabin until, with increased prosperity, his family moved to a brick house.

Zachary Taylor's mother taught him to read and write, and he later attended a school operated by Elisha Ayer, a teacher originally from Connecticut.

Zachary Taylor attended a Middletown, Kentucky, academy run by Kean O'Hara, a classically trained scholar from Ireland and the father of Theodore O'Hara.

In June 1810, Zachary Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith, whom he had met the previous autumn in Louisville.

On May 3,1808, Zachary Taylor joined the US Army, receiving a commission from President Thomas Jefferson as a first lieutenant of the Kentuckian Seventh Infantry Regiment.

Zachary Taylor spent much of 1809 in the dilapidated camps of New Orleans and nearby Terre aux Boeufs, in the Territory of Orleans.

Under James Wilkinson's command, the soldiers at Terre aux Boeufs suffered greatly from disease and lack of supplies, and Zachary Taylor was given an extended leave, returning to Louisville to recover.

Zachary Taylor bought a plantation in Louisville, as well as the Cypress Grove Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi Territory.

Zachary Taylor was temporarily called to Washington to testify for Wilkinson as a witness in a court-martial, and so did not take part in the November 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe against the forces of Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief.

The September 1812 battle was the American forces' first land victory of the war, for which Zachary Taylor received wide praise, as well as a brevet promotion to the rank of major.

Zachary Taylor moved his family to Fort Knox after the violence subsided.

Zachary Taylor reentered it a year later after gaining a commission as a major.

Zachary Taylor commanded Fort Howard at the Green Bay, Michigan Territory settlement for two years, then returned to Louisville and his family.

In late 1820, Zachary Taylor took the 7th Infantry to Natchitoches, Louisiana, on the Red River.

Zachary Taylor subsequently established Fort Selden at the confluence of the Sulphur River and the Red River.

That November, Zachary Taylor was transferred to Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, where he remained until February 1824.

Zachary Taylor spent the next few years on recruiting duty.

In May 1828, Zachary Taylor was called back to action, commanding Fort Snelling in Michigan Territory on the Upper Mississippi River for a year, and then nearby Fort Crawford for a year.

Zachary Taylor campaigned under General Henry Atkinson to pursue and later defend against Chief Black Hawk's forces throughout the summer.

Zachary Taylor respected Davis but did not wish his daughter to become a military wife, as he knew it was a hard life for families.

Davis and Sarah Zachary Taylor married in June 1835, but she died three months later of malaria contracted on a visit to Davis's sister's home in St Francisville, Louisiana.

Zachary Taylor built Fort Gardiner and Fort Basinger as supply depots and communication centers in support of Major General Thomas S Jesup's campaign to penetrate deep into Seminole territory with large forces and trap the Seminoles and their allies in order to force them to fight or surrender.

Zachary Taylor was made commander of the Second Department of the Army's Western Division in May 1841.

Zachary Taylor chose a spot at Corpus Christi, and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring in anticipation of a Mexican attack.

That same month, Zachary Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma.

Zachary Taylor was later praised for his humane treatment of the wounded Mexican soldiers before the prisoner exchange with Arista, giving them the same care as was given to American wounded.

The national press compared him to George Washington and Andrew Jackson, both generals who had ascended to the presidency, but Zachary Taylor denied any interest in running for office.

Zachary Taylor was criticized for signing a "liberal" truce rather than pressing for a large-scale surrender.

Polk sent an army under the command of Winfield Scott to besiege Veracruz, an important Mexican port city, while Zachary Taylor was ordered to remain near Monterrey.

Many of Zachary Taylor's experienced soldiers were placed under Scott's command, leaving Zachary Taylor with a smaller and less effective force.

In recognition of his victory at Buena Vista, on July 4,1847, Zachary Taylor was elected an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati, the Virginia branch of which included his father as a charter member.

Zachary Taylor was made a member of the Aztec Club of 1847, Military Society of the Mexican War.

Zachary Taylor received three Congressional Gold Medals for his service in the Mexican-American War and remains the only person to have received the medal three times.

Zachary Taylor remained at Monterrey until late November 1847, when he set sail for home.

General Zachary Taylor was not an officer to trouble the administration much with his demands but was inclined to do the best he could with the means given to him.

General Zachary Taylor never made any great show or parade, either of uniform or retinue.

Zachary Taylor was apolitical and had a negative opinion of most politicians.

Zachary Taylor thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that President Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836.

Zachary Taylor believed it was impractical to expand slavery into the Western United States, as neither cotton nor sugar could be easily grown there through a plantation economy.

Zachary Taylor was a firm American nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, believed that secession was a bad way to resolve national problems.

Zachary Taylor's support was drawn from an unusually broad assortment of political bands, including Whigs and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, allies and opponents of national leaders such as Polk and Henry Clay.

Zachary Taylor despised both Polk and his policies, while the Whigs were considering nominating another war hero for the presidency after the success of its previous winning nominee, William Henry Harrison, in 1840.

Zachary Taylor did not favor chartering another national bank, favored a low tariff, and believed that the president should play no role in making laws.

Zachary Taylor did believe that the president could veto laws, but only when they were clearly unconstitutional.

Many southerners believed that Zachary Taylor supported slavery and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when Zachary Taylor suggested that if elected president he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion.

In February 1848, Zachary Taylor again announced that he would not accept either party's presidential nomination.

At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Zachary Taylor defeated Clay and Winfield Scott for the presidential nomination.

Zachary Taylor continued to minimize his role in the campaign, preferring not to directly meet with voters or correspond about his political views.

Zachary Taylor's campaign was skillfully directed by Crittenden and bolstered by a late endorsement from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.

Nationally, Zachary Taylor defeated Cass and Van Buren, taking 163 of the 290 electoral votes.

Zachary Taylor was the last Whig to be elected president and the last person elected to the presidency from neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party, as well as the last Southerner to win a presidential election until Woodrow Wilson's election in 1912.

Zachary Taylor was equally indifferent to programs Whigs had long considered vital.

Zachary Taylor spent the months following the election formulating his cabinet selections.

Zachary Taylor was deliberate and quiet about his decisions, to the frustration of his fellow Whigs.

Zachary Taylor avoided choosing prominent Whigs, sidestepping such obvious selections as Clay.

Zachary Taylor saw Crittenden as a cornerstone of his administration, offering him the crucial seat of Secretary of State, but Crittenden insisted on serving out the governorship of Kentucky to which he had just been elected.

One of the incoming Congress's first actions would be to establish the Department of the Interior, so Zachary Taylor would be appointing that department's inaugural secretary.

Fillmore was not in favor with Zachary Taylor, and was largely sidelined throughout Zachary Taylor's presidency.

Polk held a low opinion of Zachary Taylor, privately deeming him "without political information" and "wholly unqualified for the station" of president.

Zachary Taylor spent the next week meeting with political elites, some of whom were unimpressed with his appearance and demeanor.

Zachary Taylor's speech emphasized the importance of following President Washington's precedent in avoiding entangling alliances.

Zachary Taylor attended an unusual number of funerals, including services for Polk and Dolley Madison.

Zachary Taylor sided with the New Mexicans' claim, initially pushing to keep it as a federal territory, but eventually supported statehood so as to further reduce the slavery debate in Congress.

The Zachary Taylor administration considered combining the California and Utah territories but instead opted to organize the Utah Territory.

Zachary Taylor sent his only State of the Union report to Congress in December 1849.

Zachary Taylor recapped international events and suggested several adjustments to tariff policy and executive organization, but the sectional crisis facing Congress overshadowed such issues.

Zachary Taylor reported on California's and New Mexico's applications for statehood, and recommended that Congress approve them as written and "should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character".

Tensions flared as Congress negotiated and secession talks grew, culminating with a threat from Zachary Taylor to send troops into New Mexico to protect its border from Texas, with himself leading the army.

At this point, Zachary Taylor began to receive disapproval from even his own political allies.

Zachary Taylor had been involved in a 15-year case, representing the descendants of a colonial trader whose services to the British crown had not been repaid at the time of the American Revolution.

Zachary Taylor, who had already been sketching a reorganization of his cabinet, now had an unfolding scandal to complicate the situation.

On July 4,1850, Zachary Taylor reportedly consumed copious amounts of cherries and iced milk while attending holiday celebrations during a fund-raising event at the Washington Monument, which was then under construction.

The illness initially seemed mild, and on the first day Zachary Taylor felt well enough to continue working.

The identity and source of Zachary Taylor's illness are the subject of historical speculation.

Zachary Taylor was buried in an airtight Fisk metallic burial case with a glass window plate for viewing the deceased's face.

Zachary Taylor was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, from July 13 to October 25,1850.

Zachary Taylor's 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.

Almost immediately after his death, rumors began to circulate that Zachary Taylor had been poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners or Catholics, and similar theories persisted into the 21st century.

Theories that Zachary Taylor had been murdered grew after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Zachary Taylor was the last president to own slaves while in office.

Zachary Taylor was the third of four Whig presidents, the last being Fillmore, his successor.

Zachary Taylor was the second president to die in office, preceded by William Henry Harrison, who died while serving as president nine years earlier.

In 1938, Zachary Taylor again appeared on a US postage stamp, this time the 12-cent Presidential Issue of 1938.

Zachary Taylor is the namesake of several entities and places around the nation, including:.