President Taylor's Union General Brother-- Part 2: Joseph Pannell Taylor

Civil War brigadier general.  Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he was a U.S. Army officer and brother of  President Zachary Taylor.  With the outbreak of the War of 1812, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of 1st lieutenant.

Remaining in the army after the war, he was promoted to captain in 1825 and was appointed  Assistant Commissary General of Subsistence in 1829.  Promoted to major in  1838, he was again promoted to lieutenant colonel and Assistant Commissary of Subsistence  on November 30, 1841.

At the beginning of the Civil War, he was promoted to colonel of the 9th U.S. Infantry in September 1861 and commissioned Brigadier Commissary General of Subsistence on February 9, 1863.

He was also the uncle to Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor.

Joseph Taylor died of diarrhea and partial paralysis at age 68 in Washington, D.C..  His son, Joseph Hancock Taylor also served in the Union Army as a colonel.

--Old Secesh

President Zachary Taylor's Brother Fought for the Union: Joseph Pannell Taylor

 From Find-A-Grave.

JOSEPH PANNELL TAYLOR

BIRTH:  4 May 1796, Louisville, Kentucky

DEATH:  29 June 1864, Washington, D.C.  (aged 68)

BURIAL:  Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

He had three brothers, one of whom was Zachary Taylor, and two sisters.  All were dead by the time of the Civil War except Joseph.

Joseph was on the Union side.  One of Zachary Taylor's sons was a general in the Confederate Army, a grandson was an officer in that army and another grandson was in the Confederate Navy.

I have to wonder whose side Zachary Taylor would have been on had he not died in 1850?

What You Call a Divided Family.--Old Secesh

President Zachary Taylor's Children-- Part 1

From Find-A-Grave.

ZACHARY TAYLOR

BIRTH:  24 November 1784  Orange, Virginia

DEATH:  9 July 1850 (age 65)

BURIAL: Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

He was the last U.S. President to own slaves while in office.

His youngest child and only son, Richard Taylor, was a Confederate general during the Civil War and his second child, Sarah Knox  Taylor, married future Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1835, but died of malaria shortly after their marriage.

--Old Secesh

U.S. Presidents with Confederate Ties-- Part 3: Zachary Taylor's Children

Some of the Civil War split between North and South involved the children of U.S. presidents.

One of President Zachary Taylor's sons, Richard, rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and was a top figure in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the war.  He surrendered his army on May 4, 1865, four weeks after Robert E. Lee.

Another of Taylor's children, Sarah, married future Confederate president Jefferson Davis in 1835 at the age of 21.  At the time, Davis was serving in the U.S. Army under Taylor and Taylor  forbade the relationship, saying, "I will be damned if another daughter of mine will marry into the Army."

Sarah came down with malaria later in 1835 and died.  Taylor, who did in office in 1850, reportedly never forgave Davis for her loss.

In addition, one of Taylor's grandsons, John Taylor Wood,  served on the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in its famed battle with the USS Monitor in Hampton Roads in March, 1862.  He was the son of Taylor's eldest daughter Ann.  He also commanded the CSS Tallahassee in a very successful commerce raid along the U.S. coast.  That ship left out of Wilmington, North Carolina.

He also had a brother who served in the Confederate Army named Robert Crooke Wood, Jr.

--Old Secesh

War's Hardening Ways-- Part 2: "Waiting For This Fellow To Die"

**  "Am waiting for this fellow to die, so I can get his watch and ring."

--Confederate soldier Jim Randall after being asked by a comrade why he was sitting near a wounded Union officer after a battle.

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**  "We passed the night high up the mountain, where we moved to reach our supply wagons.  A cold rain was falling, and before we found them ... I had lunched comfortably from the haversack of a dead Federal.  It is not pleasant to think of now...."

--  Confederate General Richard Taylor on an incident that occurred during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, in his memoirs.

--Secesh

The Red River Campaign's Objectives

From Wikipedia.

1.  Destroy Richard Taylor's Confederate Army.

2.  Capture Shreveport, Louisiana, Confederate headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

3.  Control of the Red River.

4.  The occupation of East Texas.

5.  Confiscate as many as 100,000 bales of cotton from plantations and warehouses along the Red River.

6.  Organize a pro-Union government in the region.

There are some historians who also believe the presence of 25,000 French troops in Mexico and Emperor Maximillian also had something to do with it.

--Old Secesh

Nov. MCCWRT-- Part 6: Red River Campaign-- The Battle of Mansfield

The Union forces now veered inland to follow a road at Grand Ecore, about half way between Alexandria and Shreveport.

In the meantime, Confederate General Richard Taylor had been reinforced and now had enough men to fight Smith.  In addition, he also now had cavalry to serve as his eyes on Union movements.

The Union forces were heading toward Mansfield, but Taylor set up a defensive position at Sabine's Crossroads and a battle took place there on April 4, 1864.  It goes by two names, the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Sabine's Crossroads.

The Confederates had a numerical advantage at this battle, 8,000 to 4,400.  Confederate officers rode their horses into battle and many were killed or wounded, but the Union line was forced back.  Banks lost 2200 men and Confederates 1,000.

--Old Secesh

Nov. MCCWRT Meeting: The Red River Campaign-- Part 4: A Two-Pronged Assault

Union General Banks had 25,000 troops overall, but his main general, Andrew J. Smith, and he didn't get along well.  The Confederates opposing them were under the overall command of Edmund Kirby Smith, but his subordinate, Gen. Richard Taylor was in tactical command.

Taylor had some 7,000 men and no cavalry to screen his movements or scout the enemy.

The Union plan called for a two-pronged movement against Shreveport.  The main one was to go up the Red River while a smaller one would approach from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Union forces captured Fort DeRussy and the overwhelmed Taylor began falling back up the Red River.

--Old Secesh