American soldier, only son of President Zachary Taylor; graduated at Yale in 1845; was in the Mexican War with his father, and on the outbreak of the Civil War entered the Confederate army as a colonel of a Louisiana regiment; was present at the first battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; appointed brigadier-general, October 1861; commanded a brigade in General Jackson’s campaign in Virginia; distinguished himself at Middletown, Winchester, Cross Keys, Port Republic, as well as in the seven days’ fight before Richmond. He was promoted to major-general, and in 1863 and 1864 commanded the department west of the Mississippi, routing General Banks at Sabine Cross Roads, April 8th. In September 1864 was appointed to the command of the Department of East Louisiana. On May 8, 1865, he surrendered to General Canby. After the war he returned to his Louisiana plantation, and published Destruction and Reconstruction (1879). He died at New York City on the 12th of April 1879.
