Impact

Zachary Taylor, United States Army general and president of the United States, was born in Orange County, Virginia, on November 24, 1784, to Richard and Sarah Dabney (Strother) Taylor; he grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He joined the army as a lieutenant in 1808 and four years later attracted attention by his defense of Fort Harrison, Indiana, against an Indian attack. Taylor left the army for a few months after the war but returned to fill a series of frontier assignments that lasted for the next thirty years. He saw action in the Black Hawk War in 1832 and in Florida in 183740 during the Seminole War. During his last two years in Florida he commanded the forces pursuing the elusive Indians. His unpretentious manner and appearance led troops there to nickname him "Old Rough and Ready." In 1845 Taylor became commander of the force ordered to Texas after annexation