Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/77

Rh script. During the brief period of his administra- tion the rules that would govern it were made manifest, and no law for civil-service reform was needful for his guidance. With him the bestowal of office was a trust held for the people ; it was not to be gained by proof of party zeal and labor. The fact of holding Democratic opinions was not a disqualification for the office. Nepotism had with him no quarter. So stiict was he in this that to be a relative was an obstacle to appoint- ment. Gen. Winfield Scott related to the writer an anecdote that may appropriately close this sketch. He said he had remarked to his wife that Gen. Taylor was an upright man, to which she re- plied : " He is not " ; that he insisted his long ac- quaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But she persisted in her denial, and he asked : "Then what manner of man is he?" When she responded : " He is a downright man."

As president he had purity, patriotism, and dis- cretion to guide him in his new field of duty, and had he lived long enough to stamp his character on his administration, it would have been found that the great soldier was equally fitted to be the head of a government. Gen. Taylor's life was written by Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848) and by John Frost (New York, 1848). — His wife, Margaret, b. in Calvert county, Md., about 1790 ; d. near Pascagoula, La., 18 Aug., 1852, was the daughter of Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. She received a home education, married early in life, and, until her husband's election to the presidency, resided with him chiefly in garri- sons or on the frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick and wounded in the hos- pitals there. Mrs. Taylor was without social ambition, and when Gen. Taylor became president she reluctantly accepted her responsibilities, regard- ing the office as a " plot to deprive her of her hus- band's society and to shorten his life by unnecessary care." She surrendered to her youngest daughter the superintendence of the household, and took no part in social duties. — Her eldest daughter, , became the wife of Jefferson Davis. — Another daughter, Elizabeth, b. in 1826, was educated in Philadelphia, married Maj. William W. S. Bliss in her nineteenth year, and, on her father's inaugura-. tion, became mistress of the White House. Mrs. Bliss, or Miss Betty, as she was popularly called, was a graceful and accomplished hostess, and, it is said, " did the honors of the establishment with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess." After the death of her father in 1850, and her husband in 1853, she spent several years in retirement, subsequently marrying Philip Dan- dridge, of Winchester. Va., whom she survives. — His only son, Richard, soldier, b. in New Orleans, 27 Jan., 1826 ; d. in New York city, 12 April. 1879, was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, when thirteen years old, where he spent three years in studying the classics, and then a year in France. He entered the junior class at Yale in 1843, and was graduated there in 1845. He was a wide and voracious though a desultory reader. From college he went to his father's camp on the Rio Grande, and he was present at Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Pal ma. His health then became impaired, and he returned home. He resided on a cotton-plantation in Jeffer- son county, Miss., until 1849, when he removed to a sugar-estate in St. Charles parish, Louisiana, about twenty miles above New Orleans, where he was residing when the civil war began. He was in the state senate from 1856 to 1860, was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in 1860. and afterward to that at Baltimore, and was a member of the Secession convention of Louisiana. As a member of the military committee, he aided the governor in organizing troops, and in June, 1861, went to Virginia as colonel of the 9th Louisi- ana volunteers. The day he reached Richmond he left for Manassas, arriving there at dusk on the day of the battle. In the autumn he was made a brigadier-general, and in the spring of 1862 he led his brigade in the valley campaign under " Stone- wall " Jackson. He distinguished himself at Front Royal, Middletown, Winchester, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, and Jackson recommended him for promotion. Taylor was also with Jackson in the seven days' battles before Richmond. He was promoted to major-general, and assigned to the command of Louisiana. The fatigues and ex- posures of his campaigns there brought on a partial and temporary paralysis of the lower limbs ; but in August he assumed command. The only com- munication across the Mississippi retained by the Confederates was between Vicksburg and Port Hudson ; but Taylor showed great ability in raising, organizing, supplying, and handling an army, and he gradually won back the state west of the Missis- sippi from the National forces. He had reclaimed the whole of this when Vicksburg fell, 4 July, 1863, and was then compelled to fall back west of Berwick's bay. Gen. Taylor's principal achieve- ment during the war was his defeat of Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at Sabine Cross-Roads, near Mansfield, De Soto parish, La., 8 April, 1864. With 8,000 men he attacked the advance of the northern army and routed it, capturing twenty-two guns and a large number of prisoners. He followed Banks, who fell back to Pleasant hill, and on the next day again attacked him, when Taylor was defeated, losing the fruits of the first day's victory. These two days' fighting have been frequently compared to that of Shiloh — a surprise and defeat on the first day, followed by a substantial victory of the National forces on the second. In the summer of 1864 Taylor was promoted to be a lieutenant-general, and ordered to the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, etc. Here he was able merely to protract the contest, while the great armies decided it. After Lee and Johnston capitulated there was nothing for him, and he surrendered to Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, at Citronelle, 8 May, 1865. The war left Taylor ruined in fortune, and he soon went abroad. Returning home, he took part in politics as an adviser, and his counsel was held in special esteem by Samuel J. Tilden in his presidential canvass. During this period he wrote his memoir of the war, entitled " Destruction and Reconstruction " (New York, 1879). — His' brother, Joseph Pannel, soldier, b. near Louisville, Ky., 4 May, 1796 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 29 June, 1864, served in the ranks on the Canadian frontier during the war of 1812, was appointed a lieutenant of U. S. infantry on 20 May, 1813, served through the war with Great Britain, and was retained on the peace establishment as lieutenant of artillery, becoming a captain in July, 1825. He was appointed commissary of subsistence in 1829, and thenceforth served in that department, becoming assistant commissary-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1841. On 30 May, 1848, he was brevetted colonel for his services in prosecuting the war with Mexico, during which he was chief commissary of the army on the upper line of operations. In September, 1861, he was made colonel and commissary-general, and on 9 Feb., 1863, was promoted brigadier-general. His wife was a daughter of Justice John McLean.— Their son, John