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. 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. In 1844, he married Sarah Elizabeth Blandford. 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. 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. agrees with the editors of the Jefferson Davis papers that the officer was Thomas H. Taylor, not John G. Taylor as stated by the editor of Averell's memoirs, which are incomplete. Moreover, Davis himself wrote that Colonel Thomas Taylor was the messenger. Scharf thus also errs by stating that the messenger was Colonel Richard Taylor. After some personal conversation between Taylor and Porter, a Union cavalry escort took Taylor to Arlington, where they found McDowell was out.

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.

After commanding a brigade in Major General Carter L. Stevenson's division of the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana from December 1862 through April 1863, Taylor became provost marshal He was in command of an attack on Donaldsonville, Louisiana on June 27, 1863 or June 28, 1863, which was repulsed in part by gunboats on the Mississippi River. 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 was buried at State Cemetery, Frankfort, Kentucky.