Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/74

52 sation would naturally be reminiscences of their military life, and all the sons of Col. Taylor, save one, Hancock, entered the U. S. army. The rapid extension of settlements on the border was pro- ductive of frequent collision with the Indians, and required the protection of a military force.

In 1808, on the recommendation of President Jefferson, congress authorized the raising of five regiments of infantry, one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons. From the terms of the act it was understood that this was not to be a permanent increase of the U. S. army, and many of the officers of the " old army " de- clined to seek promotion in the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen between the United States and Great Britain which caused serious an- ticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard the additional force authorized as a pre- liminary step in preparation for such a war. Zach- ary Taylor, then in his twenty-fourth year, applied for a commission and was appointed a 1st lieu- tenant in the 7th infantry, one of the new regi- ments, and in 1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regiment, according to the regulations of the service. He was happily mar- ried in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert county, Md., who shared with him the privations and dangers of his many years of frontier service, and survived him but a short time. The troubles on the frontier continued to increase until 1811, when* Gen. William H. Harrison, afterward presi- dent of the United States, marched against the stronghold of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe.

In June, 1812, war was declared against Eng- land, and this increased the widespread and not unfounded fears of Indian invasion in the valley of the Wabash. To protect Vincennes from sudden assault, Capt. Taylor was ordered to Fort Harri- son, a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and with his company of infantry, about fifty strong, made preparations to defend the place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, know- ing the smallness of the garrison, came, confidently counting on its capture ; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigilance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to the assailants that when, in the following Oc- tober. Gen. Hopkins came to support Fort Harrison, no 'Indians were to be found thereabout. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Capt. Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the following November, Maj. Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, formed a part of the command of Gen. Hopkins in the expedition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the Wabash. In 1814, with his separate command, he being then a maior by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile Indians and their British allies on Rock river, which was so suc- cessful as to give subsequent security to that im- mediate frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. After the war, 3 March, 1815, a law was enacted to fix the military peace establishment of the United States. By this act the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the presi- dent should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor had borne the responsibilities and per- formed the duties of a battalion commander so long and successfully that when the arranging board reduced him to the rank of captain in the new organization he felt the injustice, but resigned from the army without complaint, returned home, and proceeded, as he said in after-years, " to make a crop of corn." Influences that were certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until the voice of the peo- ple called him to the highest office within their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant - colonel of the 1st infantry, and commanded at Fort Snelling, then the advanced post in the northwest.

In 1832 he became colonel of the 1st infantry, with headquarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious attention to every duty were manifest in the progress and completion of the work. The second Black Hawk campaign occurred this year, and Col. Taylor, with the greater part of his regiment, joined the army com- manded by Gen. Henry Atkinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of Rock river, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a junction with the Pottawattamie band of the Prophet, a nephew of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had made with Gen. Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was re- quired to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing all claim to the Rock river villages. It was assumed that his purpose in returning to the east side of the river was hostile, and, from the defenceless condition of the settlers and the horror of savage atrocity, great excitement was created, due rather to his fame as a warrior than to the number of his followers. If, as he subse- quently declared, his design was to go and live peaceably with his nephew, the Prophet, rather than with the Foxes, of whom Keokuk was the chief, that design may have been frustrated by the lamentable mistake of some mounted volunteers in hastening forward in pursuit of Black Hawk, who, with his band — men, women, and children — was going up on the south side of the Rock river. The pursuers fell into an ambuscade, and were routed with some loss and in great confusion. The event will be remembered by the men of that day as " Stillman's run."

The vanity of the young Indians was inflated by their success, as was shown by some exultant messages ; and the sagacious old chief, whatever he may have previously calculated upon, now saw that war was inevitable and immediate. With his band recruited by warriors from the Prophet's band, he crossed to the north side of Rock river, and. pa-s- ing through the swamp Koshkenong, fled over the prairies west of the Four Lakes, toward Wiscon- sin river. Gen. Henry Dodge, with a battalion of mounted miners, overtook the Indians while they were crossing the Wisconsin and attacked their rear-guard, which, when the main body had crossed, swam the river and joined the retreat over the Kickapoo hills toward the Mississippi. Gen. At- kinson, with his whole army, continued the pur- suit, and, after a toilsome march, overtook the Indians north of Prairie du Chien, on the bank of