Richard Taylor (April 3, 1744 – January 19, 1829) was an officer in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He was the father of Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, and Joseph Pannell Taylor, who served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.
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Early life
Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1744 to Zachary Taylor and Elizabeth Lee, daughter of Hancock Lee. He was a graduate of the College of William and Mary. In 1769 he explored the Ohio River and Mississippi River with his older brother, Hancock Taylor, travelling from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Another brother, Giles Taylor, was the father of Edmund Dick Taylor, considered the father of the "greenback" American currency. His paternal grandfather was James Taylor, member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Military service
When the American Revolution began, Taylor became a 2nd lieutenant in the Virginia Continental forces on February 12, 1775, and fought in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. He was discharged as a lieutenant colonel on September 12, 1781.
Taylor was also involved with the Valley Forge Campaign. In the Fall of 1777 Thomas Shoemaker's Gwynedd township house was first plundered by Washington's army, then occupied by Taylor and other officers who kept the foragers away. The troops commandeered livestock and hay for the army. The troops did not even leave a milk cow for the family with small children and when they bought a new one it was taken too. However, this was stopped by Capt. Richard Taylor, Capt. William Cunningham and Capt. Francis Taylor (all from Virginia and part of Greene's Corp). They had the prime offender arrested on 24 October 1777, and made him run the gauntlet after which the families in the neighborhood were no longer bothered. Richard Taylor told Thomas Shoemaker, he had "been in nine battles and would be in ninety-nine more before the British gained the day." Thomas Shoemaker's land was the southwest corner of the intersection of present-day North Wales Rd. and Welsh Rd, just outside Lansdale Pa. (currently owned by Tom and Wendy Tracy)