This is also called the Battle of Vicksburg Crater. Explosives were placed in a mine under this part of the Confederate defensive lines and exploded, creating a huge gap in their lines. Union infantry was sent in. (I have also been writing about the 27th USCT regiment which went on a similar mission to exploit the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg and later participated in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.)
The 45th Illinois was part of U.S. Brigadier General Mortimer D. Leggett's First Brigade, assigned to U.S. Major General John Logan's First Division of Major General James B. McPherson's XVII Corps.
The regiment was led by Colonel Jasper Maltby and rushed into the gaping hole left by the detonation of the mine in what Gen. Leggett describd as "desperate" fighting. Taylor, as color bearer was in the front of the regiment.
As they clawed their way to the top of the Third Louisiana Redan, Sgt, Taylor planted the regiment's colors on the works. The fighting would continue until late in the night. The federaal troops eventually pulled back 75 feet to a position they held until the city's surrender on July 4, 1863.
Taylor received his Medal of Honor during the fight which also became known as "General Logan's Canal."
After the surrender, the 45th Illinois was the first regiment into the city.
Taylor remained with the 45th until he was mustered out on September 8, 1864, when his three year term of enlistment expired.
After the war, he and his wife Margery, lived in Wyandotte, Kansas, where he worked as a banker.
--Old Secesh
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