The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1850-07-26
GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR.


ELEvENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES.
Born IN Orange Co., Va., a. D. 1884.
|! is no dispalagement 10 the other States
Of the Union, to say that Virginia has been
the mother Of the Gracchi Of the Republic
The.c;,ivalry of her founder seems to have
passed into The Soil, and electrified hel
sons. From her generous bosom they have
drank heroism and love oil country. She
has moulded the South, a. New Eng land
has moulded the North and the West
while the mingling OF the Cavaliers and
the Pilgrims has shaped the character oI
the men VINO are now laying the tounda-
lions Of great empires on the Pacific.
The youth of nation is its heroic age.
With US lha, period has not yet passed.
The State which had produced Patrick
Henry, Jefferson, Marshall, Lee. Madison,
Mon,oe; and above all the greatest and the
hes, of men, whose name embodes so
much Of the nation and the hope of man,
kind, was fit place 10 give existence and
inspiration TO one who was 10 wear the
mantle of WASHINGTON.
His ancestors left England two cen,u>
ries ago, and settled in Virginia. Richard
Taylor, his father was Colonel in the
continental war, and fought by the side Of
Washington in the battle of Trenion.-
Daniel Boon-lhe Romulous of the west.
had explored the wilds of Kentucky, and
Col. Taylor soon after traversed The Dark
and Bloody Ground in search Of a new
home. He penetrated on foot and with.
out companion as far as New Orleans,
and returned TO Virginia by sea.
In 1890, he emigTaled with his family
to Kentucky, taking with him a boy of six
years who was to be one OF The chief STAN
darI bearers, and PIesiIen, of the Re-
public. The family resided in The midst o.!
Indian tribes where men never slept with
out first looking al the ptming Of their RI
with the geam ofthe tomahawk. and the
yell Of the savage. An earnest Military
passion lnrked in his character, Was nur-
tured by the romance of frontier life, and
inhamed by household legends Of The Rev
olutIon. His education was plain and sub.
stanlial. 1t fitted him lor the great busi-
ness of life. Thoughllulness, judgment,
shrewdness, and stability, with a magnan.
imous heart, made up his character.
The firing of single shot from the Leo
pard into the Chesapeake, stirred the heart
oi the American people, and made Sc.
cond war with the parent country inevita'
BILE. Young Taylor heard it, and he APP
piled 10 Jefferson for a commission, and en-.
cred the Army in 1907, as first Lieutenant
n the 7th Regiment oI infantry. The
'oung Republic was upprepared for war.
A long and unprotected frontier, which
stretched from the forests of Maine, ur The
Green Lakes and down the Mississippi, a
'"uu W 'eH 'HousdHu IOHlcutIdPu CdVd>
,es, armed with Brllishr rifles, had gathered
lnder their great Tecumsen, to burn our
welliugs and slaughter our people. The
rst brilliant scene in the life of Taylor
pened at
FORT BROWN,
small and weak stockade on the Wabash,
, the heart OF the Indian country. With |
fly soldiers Lieutenant Taylor was COM
,lssioned to defend the place. Repulsed
every attack and fo,led in every Strata
EN-. the Savages fired the for, a: mid
lght. The screams of The women and
hl'dren. the bloc dcurdling howl of three
undred red men, and the desola,ing fire,
ashing against thick forest and black
~, developed the COO! intrepidity of his
iaracler. He ex,insush.d the flames,
I'd held the fort ill the shout OF Col. Rus.
HIS mounted rangers was heard through
e forests, coming to his relief. This gall
nj achievement took place the l4rh Sep
mber. 1879. President Madison sert
IN a commission Of B,evet- Major, dated
e same day.
In 1882 he was raised to the rank of CnI-
el, and sent to Florida. The 2jth De- !
mber 1887. with five hundred men, under !,
g clear range of seven hundred Indian ri.
$ re gained the vic'"-y Of
OkEE.CHO-REE.
was the Mcn'enoitc of his fame. His !
of Brigadier General bore the
lie of this sansuinary battle. In Nav.
30. .ha received the supreme command in I
orida-a concentration OF difficulty and
soon brought the Seminole war
a close. G
Hitherto his movements had Influenced 7