Zachary "Old Rough & Ready" Taylor 12th President of the United States [56547]

  General Notes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Taylor_%28general%29

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chute/gp691.htm#head5



Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States:
"He was the first professional soldier to become President, having been elected because of his victories in the Mexican War. His presidency was brief (16 months) and his accomplishments few. He did, however, take a strong stand against Southern secession over the slavery question, though a Southerner and a landowner himself. Taylor was of English heritage and Whig political affiliation. He stood 5'8" tall and was an Episcopalian. His death came 9 July 1850 in the White House; he was buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery near Louisville, KY.
Born in Virginia in 1784, he was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. He was a career officer in the Army, but his talk was most often of cotton raising. His home was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he owned a plantation in Mississippi.
"Old Rough and Ready's" homespun ways were political assets. His long military record would appeal to northerners; his ownership of 100 slaves would lure southern votes. He had not committed himself on troublesome issues. But Taylor did not defend slavery or southern sectionalism; 40 years in the Army made him a strong nationalist.
He spent a quarter of a century policing the frontiers against Indians. In the Mexican War he won major victories at Monterrey and Buena Vista.
In February 1850 President Taylor had held a stormy conference with southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered.
Then events took an unexpected turn. Zachary Taylor spent July 4, 1850, eating cherries and milk at a ceremony at the Washington Monument. He got sick from the heat and died five days later, the second president to die in office.
After his death, the forces of compromise triumphed, but the war Taylor had been willing to face came 11 years later. In it, his only son Richard served as a general in the Confederate Army."


Type: Web Site - Multiple Source Listing
Title: My Southern Family
Author: Becky Bass Bonner & Josephine Lindsay Bass
Source 1: "Some Prominent Virginia Families", originally published in 1907 by J.P. Bell, Lynchburg Louise Pecquet du Bellet
Source 2: "Colonial Families of the United States" Volume IV, (7 volumes) MacKenzie, George Norbury (1851-1919).
Source 3: "Ancestors of American Presidents", compiled by Gary Boyd Roberts, Pub. 1989 by New Eng Hist. Gen. Soc., Boston, MA.
Source 4: "Taylor Descent, Bolling, Shore, Goode" by Robert W. Marks; 5/27/85. 905 N. 3rd St. McGehee AR 71654.
Source 4: "URL: http://www.freedomnet.com/~czar/pres/p.htm", Ref: The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants to the American Colonies of the US, by Gary Boyd Roberts, Genealogical Publish Co., Inc. 1993.
URL: <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mysouthernfamily/>
LOCA: Chute Family Records/GP691-5

Zachary married Margaret Mackall ("Peggy") Smith [56548] [MRIN: 551614989], daughter of Walter Smith [56549] and Ann Mackall [56559], on 21 Jun 1810. (Margaret Mackall ("Peggy") Smith [56548] was born on 21 Sep 1788 in Calvert County, Maryland and died on 14 Aug 1852.)