Thomas H . Taylor Thomas Hart Taylor ( July 31 , 1825 – April 12 , 1901 ) was a Confederate States Army colonel , brigade commander , provost marshal and last Confederate post commander at Mobile , Alabama during the American Civil War ( Civil War ) . His appointment as a brigadier general was refused by the Confederate Senate after Confederate President Jefferson Davis failed to nominate Taylor , apparently following Davis ' s appointment of Taylor to the rank . Nonetheless , Taylor ' s name is frequently found on lists and in sketches of Confederate generals . He was often referred to as a general both during the Civil War and the years following it . Before the Civil War , Taylor served as a first lieutenant in the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Mexican - American War . After that war , he was a cattle driver , farmer and lawyer . After the Civil War , he was engaged in business in Mobile , Alabama for five years , and after returning to Kentucky , was a Deputy U . S . Marshal for five years and was chief of police at Louisville , Kentucky for eleven years . Early life . Thomas H . Taylor was born July 31 , 1825 at Frankfort , Kentucky . He was the son of Edmund Taylor , second cousin once removed of President and Major General Zachary Taylor , and his second wife , a Miss Hart . Taylor attended Kenyon College in Ohio and graduated from Centre College in Kentucky in 1843 . During the Mexican - American War , Taylor served in the 3rd Kentucky Infantry Regiment , at first as a private , and then as a first lieutenant . Taylor was a cattle driver , farmer and lawyer before the war . Taylor was married three times . In 1844 , he married Sarah Elizabeth Blandford . They had one child , Edmund Haynes Taylor , before her death in 1858 . In 1864 , he married Sarah A . Moreland of Mobile , Alabama , who died some time before 1878 . In 1878 , he married Eliza Adair Monroe . They had four children , Mary Louise , John Adair Monroe , Thomas Hart Jr . and Adair Monroe . American Civil War service . Thomas H . Taylor began his Confederate Army Civil War service as a captain of cavalry in the Army of the Confederate States of America , the Regular Army of the Confederacy . According to one source , on July 3 , 1861 , he became lieutenant colonel of the Confederate 1st Kentucky Infantry Regiment . Other sources indicate that the 1st Kentucky Infantry was not formed until August 7 , 1861 . In early July 1861 , Taylor was either a member of the personal staff of Confederate President Jefferson Davis or at least a special messenger on his behalf . On July 6 , 1861 , Taylor took dispatches from Jefferson Davis for President Abraham Lincoln . These dispatches insisted that the crew of the privateer " Savannah " be treated as prisoners of war and exchanged and threatened retaliation against Union Army prisoners if the crew were hanged as pirates . After proceeding to Manassas Junction , Virginia by railroad , on July 8 , 1861 , with an escort of about 12 men from Fairfax , Virginia , Taylor set out under a flag of truce toward the Union Army headquarters of Major General Irvin McDowell at Arlington , Virginia , presumably to ultimately present the dispatches to President Lincoln . About seven miles from Arlington , Taylor was met by Union Colonel , soon to be Brigadier General , Andrew Porter , a comrade from the Mexican - American War and First Lieutenant , later Brigadier General , William W . Averell . After some personal conversation between Taylor and Porter , a Union cavalry escort took Taylor to Arlington , where they found McDowell was out . Taylor was taken to the office of U . S . Army General - in - Chief , Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott in Washington when Scott learned of his mission and that McDowell was not present to receive him . Scott sent the dispatches to President Lincoln . Scott served wine and champagne while they waited for a reply . Due to the late hour , after 10 : 00 p . m . , Lincoln sent no reply . Scott sent Taylor back to Major General Irvin McDowell for more hospitality and to stay the night , promising that he would send a reply from Lincoln promptly . After breakfast and with a stack of northern newspapers , Taylor and his party were escorted back to the Confederate lines . Lincoln never responded to Davis ' s messages . However , he did not enforce the stated policy of hanging privateers as pirates . On August 7 , 1861 , General Joseph E . Johnston combined two Kentucky battalions into the 1st Kentucky Infantry Regiment . Lieutenant Colonel Taylor was ordered to take command . On September 28 , 1861 , the regiment skirmished with small Union Army units as the Confederates evacuated Mason ' s Hill and Munson ' s Hill , about four miles from Alexandria , Virginia . Taylor was promoted to colonel on October 14 , 1861 . On December 20 , 1861 , the regiment fought at the Battle of Dranesville as part of a large foraging party under the overall command of Brigadier General J . E . B . Stuart . Taylor became separated from his men while moving down his line and had to extricate himself from behind enemy lines after nightfall . Taylor ' s regiment was assigned to Brigade 5 , Division 1 of the Army of East Tennessee in March 1862 . The 1st Kentucky Infantry was a 12 - month regiment which was mustered out of the Confederate States Army in the summer of 1862 . Taylor was assigned to brigade command in the Department of East Tennessee by Major General E . Kirby Smith . This division served at Cumberland Gap and in Kentucky . Thomas H . Taylor was appointed brigadier general on November 4 , 1862 but the Confederate Senate refused the appointment when Confederate President Jefferson Davis failed to nominate Taylor . After commanding a brigade in Major General Carter L . Stevenson ' s division of the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana from July 1862 through April 1863 , Taylor became provost marshal and inspector general for the Army of Mississippi under Lieutenant General John Pemberton at Vicksburg , Mississippi . He was in command of an attack on Donaldsonville , Louisiana on June 27 , 1863 or June 28 , 1863 , which was repulsed in part by gunboat s on the Mississippi River . Taylor was captured at the fall of Vicksburg to Union forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S . Grant on July 4 , 1863 He was paroled , went to Montgomery , Alabama and was later exchanged . After his exchange , Taylor had brief service at Mobile , Alabama and then was given command of the District of Mississippi and East Louisiana in the Department of Alabama , Mississippi and East Louisiana from March 5 , 1864 to April 28 , 1864 . Taylor was delayed by Union Major General William T . Sherman ' s capture of Meridian , Mississippi after the Battle of Meridian from February 14 to February 20 , 1864 . Taylor took command on March 30 , 1864 . He had a difficult time due to his small number of troops and civilian discontent as well as Union raids . Taylor was relieved on April 28 , 1864 by Colonel John S . Scott , who had lived in East Louisiana , and reported to department headquarters at Demopolis , Alabama . On June 24 , 1864 , Taylor became provost marshal of the Department of Alabama and East Mississippi under Lieutenant General Stephen D . Lee at Meridian . From November 1864 until the end of the war , Taylor was in command of the post at Mobile , Alabama . In this capacity , he commanded only some reserve and local defense troops , charged more with maintaining order than defending the city , which he was compelled to evacuate with Confederate troops from local forts on April 11 , 1865 . According to some sources , no record of his parole has been found , but at least one source says Taylor was paroled on May 5 , 1865 with troops at Jackson , Mississippi where he acted as parole commissioner for Confederate troops in that area under orders from Lieutenant General Richard Taylor . Aftermath . After the Civil War , Taylor moved to Alabama where he engaged in business at Mobile until 1870 . He returned to Kentucky and served for five years as deputy U . S . Marshal . Taylor was chief of police of Louisville , Kentucky from 1881 to 1892 . Even though he had no experience as an engineer , he was superintendent of the Louisville and Portland Canal between February 1886 and 1889 when he was replaced due to a change in administration . Thomas Hart Taylor died at Louisville , Kentucky on April 12 , 1901 of typhoid fever . Taylor was buried at State Cemetery , Frankfort , Kentucky .