Zachary Taylor: Old Rough and Ready

Early Life and Military Career

Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784 in Barboursville, Virginia, into a family of modest Virginia gentry. The family moved to Kentucky when he was an infant, and Taylor grew up on the frontier. He had little formal education but joined the U.S. Army in 1808 at age 23 and spent the next 40 years as a professional soldier — fighting in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and ultimately the Mexican-American War.

He married Margaret Mackall Smith in 1810. Their daughter Sarah Knox Taylor married Jefferson Davis in 1835 against Taylor's wishes; she died three months later of malaria. Taylor later reconciled with Davis, who became his most devoted political ally — and ultimately President of the Confederacy.

Hero of the Mexican-American War

Taylor's national fame came from his victories in the Mexican-American War (1846–48). At the Battle of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in 1846, his forces defeated Mexican armies twice their size. His greatest achievement came at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, where he defeated a Mexican force of 15,000 men with just 4,700 troops. His famous order — "Tell him to go to hell" in response to a Mexican surrender demand — captured his blunt, unmilitary style perfectly.

His nickname "Old Rough and Ready" reflected his battlefield habits: he dressed in plain clothes rather than uniform, rode a horse named Old Whitey, and chewed tobacco. Soldiers loved him for it.

The Presidency (1849–1850)

Taylor was the first president with no prior political experience of any kind — he had never held elected office, never voted in a presidential election, and had no clear political views on most domestic issues. The Whigs chose him purely for his military fame. He was inaugurated on March 5, 1849 (March 4 fell on a Sunday).

His presidency was dominated entirely by one question: what to do about slavery in the territories won from Mexico. In an irony that surprised everyone, the Louisiana slaveholder took a firm Unionist position. Taylor believed California and New Mexico should be admitted as states without the slavery question being pre-decided — allowing them to determine it themselves through their constitutions. He threatened to personally lead the army against any state that attempted secession, telling Southern senators directly that he would hang traitors with the same firmness he had shown enemies in battle.

Death

On July 4, 1850, Taylor attended ceremonies at the Washington Monument construction site, consuming large quantities of raw fruit, iced milk, and cold water in intense heat. He fell violently ill that evening. Five days later, on July 9, 1850, he was dead — most likely from acute gastroenteritis, possibly complicated by cholera or food contamination. He had served just 16 months. His death brought Millard Fillmore to the presidency and fundamentally changed the trajectory of the slavery debate, as Fillmore immediately supported the Compromise of 1850 that Taylor had been opposing.

Legacy

Taylor's brief presidency left historians with a tantalizing counterfactual: would his firm Unionism have delayed or prevented the Civil War if he had lived? His combination of Southern background and genuine nationalist conviction was rare. Instead, his death gave the presidency to Fillmore, who signed the Compromise of 1850 — a settlement that delayed the crisis for a decade but resolved nothing.