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Richard Taylor 1826–79, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. near Louisville, Ky.; son of Zachary Taylor. A Louisiana planter, he attained some political prominence and was a member of the Louisiana secession convention. In the Civil War he was made a brigadier general (Oct., 1861) and fought under Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley and in the Seven Days battles of the Peninsular campaign. He was made commander in Louisiana in 1862. His victory at Sabine Crossroads (Apr. 8, 1864), although followed by a repulse at Pleasant Hill the next day, induced Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks to abandon his Red River expedition. In Aug., 1864, Taylor was promoted to lieutenant general and made commander in the lower South. The collapse of the Confederate armies in the East led him to surrender in May, 1865. In 1879 he wrote Destruction and Reconstruction (ed. by R. B. Harwell, 1955).
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