Zachary Taylor

• Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was

the 12th President of the United States and an American military
leader.
• Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in
the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass and becoming the
first President never to have held any previous elected office.
• Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office and the last
Whig to win a presidential election.
• Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military
career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black
Hawk War, and theSecond Seminole War.
• He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of
Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American
War.
• As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate
stance on the issue of slavery.
• He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial
stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for
the Compromise of 1850.
• Taylor is thought to have died of gastroenteritis just 16 months into his
term, the third shortest tenure of any President.
• Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less
time.
• Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
• Zachary Taylor was born on a farm on November 24, 1784, in Orange
County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters.
• He was the youngest of three sons in a family of nine children.
• His father, Richard Taylor, had served with George Washington during
the American Revolution.
• Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster,the Pilgrim colonist
leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, and passenger
aboard theMayflower and one of the signers of the Mayflower
Compact; Isaac Allerton Jr.,the son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac
Allerton and Fear Brewster.
• He was a 1650 graduate of Harvard College and was a merchant
in Colonial America; first in business with his father in New England,
and after his father's death, in Virginia. He was
a Burgess for Northumberland County and a Councillor of Virginia.
• He became a member of the Virginia militia and ultimately rose to the
rank of colonel; James Madison was Taylor's second cousin, and
both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Robert E. Lee were kinsmen.
• During his youth, he lived on the frontier in Louisville, Kentucky,
residing in a small cabin in a wood during most of his childhood, before
moving to a brick house as a result of his family's increased prosperity.
• He shared the house with seven brothers and sisters, and his father
owned 10,000 acres, town lots in Louisville, and twenty-six slaves by
1800.
• Since there were no schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had only a
basic education growing up, provided by tutors his father hired from
time to time.
• He was reportedly a poor student; his handwriting, spelling, and
grammar were described as "crude and unrefined throughout his life."
• When Taylor was older, he decided to join the military
• On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving
a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry
Regiment from his cousin James Madison.