Walter Herron Taylor | |
|---|---|
 Lt. Col. Walter H. Taylor, Lee's aide-de-camp | |
| Member of theVirginia Senate from theNorfolk, Virginia district | |
| In office 1869–1873 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1838-06-13)June 13, 1838 |
| Died | March 1, 1916(1916-03-01) (aged 77) |
| Resting place | Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Virginia Military Institute |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States |
| Branch/service |  Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |  Colonel |
| Commands | Assistant Adjutant General,Army of Northern Virginia |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Walter Herron Taylor (June 13, 1838 – March 1, 1916) was an American banker, lawyer, soldier, politician, author, and railroad executive fromNorfolk, Virginia. During theAmerican Civil War, he fought with theConfederate States Army, became a key aide to GeneralRobert E. Lee and rose to the rank ofColonel. After the war, Taylor became a senator in theVirginia General Assembly, and attorney for theNorfolk and Western Railway and later theVirginian Railway.[1]
Taylor was born on June 13, 1838, inNorfolk, Virginia. He was descended from theFirst Families of Virginia, being of entirelyEnglish descent. At least one of his paternal great-grandfathers, Capt. John Calvert, had fought for the Patriot cause in theAmerican Revolutionary War. His maternal grandfather, Dr. Jonathan Cowdery, had been taken captive by pirates inTripoli before theWar of 1812 and lived to be the eldest officer in theU.S. Navy. He was a direct descendent ofRichard Taylor an English politician who sat in theHouse of Commons in the 1660s as well ashis father also namedRichard Taylor who served in the House of Commons in the 1620s. Other ancestors included colonial era migrantsWilliam Farrar andRichard Cocke as well as English colonistAdam Thoroughgood and his wife Sarah.[2] Throughgood (1604–1640) rose from buying his passage across theAtlantic Ocean by becoming an indentured servant, to become an early colonial leader (and militia captain) inNorfolk County. He helped name various areas in Norfolk County, particularly near theLynnhaven River where he settled in the 17th century.[citation needed]
Following a local private education suitable for his class, including at Norfolk Academy, and despite his father's death, Walter Taylor went toLexington, Virginia for higher studies. Walter H. Taylor Sr. probably owned 4 slaves during this Walter's youth.[3] Cadet Taylor graduated fromVirginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1857. He became a railroad clerk, and later a banker in Norfolk.[4]
AfterJohn Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, Taylor joined a local militia company. AfterVirginia voters approved secession in April 1861 during the early days of theAmerican Civil War, Taylor joined theConfederate States Army, as did others in his militia company and his elder brother, Richard Cornelius Taylor (1835-1917; who would become a Major before the war's end).[5]
Walter Taylor was soon assigned to the staff of GeneralRobert E. Lee, shortly after the General was given command of Confederate forces. Taylor became no ordinary staff officer, but effectively the chiefaide-de-camp to General Lee throughout the war. Since Lee was noted for his small, over-worked staff, the exceedingly capable and tireless Taylor had many responsibilities. He wrote dispatches and orders for Lee, performed personal reconnaissance, and often carried messages in person tocorps anddivision commanders. (He verbally transmitted the famous "if practicable" order from Lee toGeneral Richard S. Ewell belowCemetery Hill during theBattle of Gettysburg.) Taylor greeted all people who came to see Lee, and usually decided whether they would be announced to the General. When General Lee assumed command of theArmy of Northern Virginia in June 1862, during thePeninsula Campaign, Taylor became that army's assistantadjutant general. Taylor eventually attained a rank almost commensurate with his great staff responsibilities, being promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 12, 1863.
Ltc. Taylor accompanied General Lee during the surrender atAppomattox Court House. (In postbellum writings, he is generally referred to as "colonel", a customary abbreviated title.)
Taylor's fiancée was Elizabeth Selden "Bettie" Saunders, daughter of United States Navy Captain John Loyall Saunders and Mrs. Martha Bland Selden Saunders. During the war Miss Saunders lived with the family ofLewis D. Crenshaw inRichmond, Virginia, where she worked in the Confederate Mint and for the Surgeon General in the Confederate Medical Department.
In the last few days of theSiege of Petersburg, as Lee and his staff realized thatPetersburg was lost and Richmond should be evacuated, General Lee gave the 26-year-old Taylor special permission to go to Richmond to give Miss Saunders "the protection of his name". A messenger sent ahead to Richmond advised his bride-to-be, who made arrangements with Reverend Dr.Charles Minnigerode, the rector ofSt. Paul's Episcopal Church.
After midnight, in the wee hours of April 3, 1865, just before evacuating Confederates set fire to the city and looters ran wild in its streets, Taylor and Miss Saunders were married in the Crenshaw house parlor. Afterward, Lewis Crenshaw accompanied Taylor as far back toward the Confederate lines as safety permitted. One week after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Taylor returned to Richmond with General Lee, picked up his bride, and drove her back to Norfolk in a buggy.
They would have at least two daughters and three sons who reached adulthood.
After the war, Taylor resumed his banking career in Norfolk, and also worked as an attorney, particularly for railroads which were rebuilding and consolidating after the war. He quickly received a pardon, then was elected to municipal offices and to theVirginia General Assembly as aConservative (in the same election as adopted a new state Constitution which forbad slavery). Taylor served as a State Senator from 1869 until 1873, vehemently opposing theReadjuster Party.
On April 30, 1870, General Lee paid his last visit to the Norfolk area, accompanied by his daughter, Agnes Lee. He arrived inPortsmouth via railroad fromNorth Carolina. Colonel Taylor met and escorted him through the waiting crowds to Norfolk, then to theElizabeth River ferry. Lee would die less than five months later. In 1870, Taylor began his first term on the VMI Board of Visitors (serving until 1873); he would again serve on the VMI board from 1914 until his death.
In 1877, Taylor became president of the Marine Bank, where he would remain for 39 years. He later also served on the board of directors of theNorfolk and Western Railway. Near the end of the 19th century, Taylor helped develop theOcean View area, located along the south shore of theChesapeake Bay inNorfolk County. The project had been surveyed and laid out before the American Civil War byWilliam Mahone, who also later became a Confederate General (serving under General Lee and then with the Readjusters whom Taylor had opposed after the war). Served by anarrow gauge railroad from Norfolk, which operated asteam locomotive named the "Walter H. Taylor", Ocean View blossomed as both a popular resort area andstreetcar suburb of the City of Norfolk, which annexed the area in 1923.
In April 1907, while Taylor was the attorney for the newVirginian Railway, then under construction, he met the founder, millionaireindustrialistHenry Huttleston Rogers and humoristMark Twain when they arrived inHampton Roads aboard Rogers' steam yachtKanawha. They were in Norfolk to attend the opening ceremonies of theJamestown Exposition held atSewell's Point. According to published newspaper reports of the day, Twain drove off with Taylor in an "infernal machine," better known in modern times as an automobile.[6]
Taylor devoted a considerable portion of his postwar years to defending General Lee's reputation (which developed into theLost Cause historiography), as well as settling controversies related to the Army of Northern Virginia. Although less vehement than the notoriously irascible former GeneralJubal Early, Taylor worked with the Louisiana-basedSouthern Historical Society. He was a member of several Confederate veterans organizations, including theAssociation of the Army of Northern Virginia and theUnited Confederate Veterans.[7]
Former generals from both sides of the war made Taylor an unofficialcourt of last resort in settling disputes about their wartime reputations. Many generals petitioned him for information, so Taylor decided to write a book to set the record straight. He asked for permission from the U.S. government to view the national archives related to the Army of the Potomac and became the first Confederate granted such a privilege. Thus in 1877, he publishedFour Years with General Lee, which contained dozens of anecdotes about the former General. Because it contained much from the National Archives, it read more like a situation report than a novel, and was not widely popular at the time. Former Confederate GeneralJames Longstreet in particular claimed that if Col. Taylor ever wrote another book about the war, he hoped it would tell the "rest of the story."[citation needed] (Many former Confederates vilified Longstreet for not only his actions at Gettysburg, but also his postwar accommodation with theRepublicans.) Col. Taylor did write another book,Robert E. Lee, His Campaign in Virginia, 1861–1865 (1906). Although it contained the same statistical information as his previous work, it read more like a novel, and quickly became a best seller.
Walter H. Taylor died of cancer on March 1, 1916.[8]Walter H. Taylor Elementary School of theNorfolk City Public Schools is named in his honor.
Taylor is a character in the novel "The Killer Angels" (1974) byMichael Shaara, which won thePulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. He is portrayed byBo Brinkman in the novel's film adaptionGettysburg, and in the prequelGods and Generals.
Taylor is a character in the followingalternate history novels:
Media related toWalter H. Taylor at Wikimedia Commons
Taylor, Walter H., Belmont, John S., Tower, R. Lockwood,Lee's Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862–1865, University of South Carolina Press, 1995,ISBN 1-57003-021-9.
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