Richard Taylor

Who was Richard Taylor?

Richard Lee Taylor was an officer in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He was the father of Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States, and Joseph Pannell Taylor, who served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1744 to Zachary Taylor and Elizabeth Lee. He was a graduate of the College of William and Mary. In 1769 he explored the Ohio River and Mississippi River with his older brother, Hancock Taylor, travelling from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.

When the American Revolution began, Taylor became a 2nd lieutenant in the Virginia Continental forces on February 12, 1775, and fought in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. He was discharged as a lieutenant colonel on September 12, 1781.

After the war, Taylor became an Original Member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati.

Taylor married Sarah Dabney Strother in 1779. They lived first at his plantation, "Hare Forest". However, he had acquired 8,000 acres throughout Kentucky, and with the return of peace in 1783, he started clearing the land to move his family there.