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Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic
Until the publication of this first volume in 1941, Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), the 12th President of the United States, was strangely overlooked by modern-day biographers. Fortunately, journalist and newspaper editor Holman Hamilton has ably rectified this situation, and filled a large gap in the biographical record of American presidential history with this stirring account of the life and times of “Old Rough and Ready.”
Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic is the first volume of Hamilton’s two-volume biography. It covers the entire span of Taylor’s military career from his earliest service in Indian warfare on the fringe of the frontier, to his great triumphs on bloodstained Mexican battlefields.
Here is the story of 40 years of preparation for the brief period of glory in which Taylor was elevated to fame as 12th President of the United States: his presidency lasted a mere 16 months. Here too, for the first time, is the true romantic story of the courtship and marriage of Taylor’s daughter and Jefferson Davis. All is set in a framework of American life on the advancing western frontier from 1820 to 1845.
In preparation for this work, Holman Hamilton undertook extensive research, exploring many untapped resources, including unpublished manuscripts, rare volumes of western travel, original newspaper accounts, and many obscure records from the archives of the Library of Congress and the War Department. He also researched many of the Taylor family’s personal papers, letters and memories. Finally, in the true tradition of investigative journalism, Hamilton personally traveled Taylor’s “trail,” and visited every Taylor battleground—from Indiana to Florida, Wisconsin to Mexico—to give this biography an authenticity unmatched in detail or color.
Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic is the first volume of Hamilton’s two-volume biography. It covers the entire span of Taylor’s military career from his earliest service in Indian warfare on the fringe of the frontier, to his great triumphs on bloodstained Mexican battlefields.
Here is the story of 40 years of preparation for the brief period of glory in which Taylor was elevated to fame as 12th President of the United States: his presidency lasted a mere 16 months. Here too, for the first time, is the true romantic story of the courtship and marriage of Taylor’s daughter and Jefferson Davis. All is set in a framework of American life on the advancing western frontier from 1820 to 1845.
In preparation for this work, Holman Hamilton undertook extensive research, exploring many untapped resources, including unpublished manuscripts, rare volumes of western travel, original newspaper accounts, and many obscure records from the archives of the Library of Congress and the War Department. He also researched many of the Taylor family’s personal papers, letters and memories. Finally, in the true tradition of investigative journalism, Hamilton personally traveled Taylor’s “trail,” and visited every Taylor battleground—from Indiana to Florida, Wisconsin to Mexico—to give this biography an authenticity unmatched in detail or color.
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October 9, 2021
Even though they’re nothing alike, reading this book on Zachary Taylor reminded me a little of reading about Herbert Hoover. Once while reading a biography of Hoover, I stopped and thought, never in a million years would I choose to read a book about the career of a geologist and mining engineer if he hadn’t happened to eventually become president. It takes a good author to draw me in to a subject I would otherwise have little interest in. I felt kind of the same way reading this book about Taylor - the life of a journeyman military officer traveling from frontier outpost to frontier outpost is not in itself fascinating and likely not something I would read (and likely not something that would be written) if that officer didn’t happen to eventually become president. But it takes a good author to make it interesting anyway.
K. Jack Bauer’s Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest is generally considered the definitive Taylor biography for those looking to read about all the presidents. That’s even though Bauer’s book can be dry in places and he almost apologizes to his readers for the dullness of his subject. But it was a pretty decent read, all things considered, so I gave it a better-than-average review, thinking it was probably about as good as anyone could do on the subject.
I had to go back and knock my rating down a peg, though, because Holman Hamilton, in the first part of his two-volume biography, has already bested Bauer’s single volume in my estimation.
While Bauer dismisses parts of Taylor’s career as boring, Hamilton’s account is detailed but never really dull. He describes the interesting and less interesting parts of Taylor's life and military career without being dismissive or skimming over the drier stretches. He offers a detailed description of the frontier life in which Taylor grew up, and goes on to follow him through his military career, featuring dramatic accounts of the action he saw in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War and, of course, the Mexican-American War.
During duller stretches of time, when Taylor was not at the center of the action, or between battles, or during times when we simply don't know much about what Taylor was doing, Hamilton describes the big picture of what was happening in the country at the time to provide broader context. Daily life and work on the frontier wasn't always riveting, but Hamilton’s writing rarely becomes tedious and he never apologizes for or skims over the quieter times in order to get to the “good parts.”
When the narrative gets to the Mexican-American War, Hamilton describes Taylor’s successes along with some of the criticisms he faced, and gently suggests he could have been more aggressive at times, but otherwise steers clear of analyzing or critiquing his military leadership. But somehow I didn’t mind, as the book never devolves into hero worship. Hamilton just describes events as they happened, instead of trying to build up or tear down a military hero.
The writing is certainly old-fashioned at times - I cringed at some of the unfortunate descriptions of Native Americans, and chuckled at some outdated descriptions like the one that called one officer “a crotchety old woman of a soldier” - but otherwise I didn’t find the fact that this was written in 1941 to distract too much from the content.
The book ends with the conclusion of Taylor’s active military career as he’s poised to become a presidential candidate. Some other books that give too much weight to the criticism of Taylor implicitly criticize the political campaign that follows - they suggest that Taylor wasn’t actually so successful in battle, so his reputation was undeserved and manipulated by those looking to fabricate a hero for patriotic and political reasons. Hamilton tells a more balanced story about how tales of Taylor’s greatness were both earned and exaggerated. While his heroism was certainly heightened for political purposes, much of the public’s excitement and adulation for Taylor was actually genuine, as the public found appealing both his battlefield successes and his plain unpretentious manner. Did that qualify him to become president? Perhaps not, but that story is left for Hamilton’s volume two.
Anyone who is mildly interested in Zachary Taylor is probably much more likely to grab Bauer’s more recent single volume instead of a two-volume work that was first published eight decades ago. But that would be a shame, because while Bauer’s book is good, Hamilton’s work (so far) I’ve simply found to be better.
K. Jack Bauer’s Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest is generally considered the definitive Taylor biography for those looking to read about all the presidents. That’s even though Bauer’s book can be dry in places and he almost apologizes to his readers for the dullness of his subject. But it was a pretty decent read, all things considered, so I gave it a better-than-average review, thinking it was probably about as good as anyone could do on the subject.
I had to go back and knock my rating down a peg, though, because Holman Hamilton, in the first part of his two-volume biography, has already bested Bauer’s single volume in my estimation.
While Bauer dismisses parts of Taylor’s career as boring, Hamilton’s account is detailed but never really dull. He describes the interesting and less interesting parts of Taylor's life and military career without being dismissive or skimming over the drier stretches. He offers a detailed description of the frontier life in which Taylor grew up, and goes on to follow him through his military career, featuring dramatic accounts of the action he saw in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War and, of course, the Mexican-American War.
During duller stretches of time, when Taylor was not at the center of the action, or between battles, or during times when we simply don't know much about what Taylor was doing, Hamilton describes the big picture of what was happening in the country at the time to provide broader context. Daily life and work on the frontier wasn't always riveting, but Hamilton’s writing rarely becomes tedious and he never apologizes for or skims over the quieter times in order to get to the “good parts.”
When the narrative gets to the Mexican-American War, Hamilton describes Taylor’s successes along with some of the criticisms he faced, and gently suggests he could have been more aggressive at times, but otherwise steers clear of analyzing or critiquing his military leadership. But somehow I didn’t mind, as the book never devolves into hero worship. Hamilton just describes events as they happened, instead of trying to build up or tear down a military hero.
The writing is certainly old-fashioned at times - I cringed at some of the unfortunate descriptions of Native Americans, and chuckled at some outdated descriptions like the one that called one officer “a crotchety old woman of a soldier” - but otherwise I didn’t find the fact that this was written in 1941 to distract too much from the content.
The book ends with the conclusion of Taylor’s active military career as he’s poised to become a presidential candidate. Some other books that give too much weight to the criticism of Taylor implicitly criticize the political campaign that follows - they suggest that Taylor wasn’t actually so successful in battle, so his reputation was undeserved and manipulated by those looking to fabricate a hero for patriotic and political reasons. Hamilton tells a more balanced story about how tales of Taylor’s greatness were both earned and exaggerated. While his heroism was certainly heightened for political purposes, much of the public’s excitement and adulation for Taylor was actually genuine, as the public found appealing both his battlefield successes and his plain unpretentious manner. Did that qualify him to become president? Perhaps not, but that story is left for Hamilton’s volume two.
Anyone who is mildly interested in Zachary Taylor is probably much more likely to grab Bauer’s more recent single volume instead of a two-volume work that was first published eight decades ago. But that would be a shame, because while Bauer’s book is good, Hamilton’s work (so far) I’ve simply found to be better.
December 8, 2018
Another ‘tick’ off my bucket list of reading at least one biography of every U.S. President. As I’ve stated in my other reviews, the lesser known the President, the harder the bios are to find. Good bios, anyway. Was this book good? Well, yes. I guess. Sort of. I’ve noticed that books, particularly biographies, that were written quite some time ago are a bit harder to digest. My theory is that as people’s attention spans have gotten shorter, publishers now demand that books be more concise and ‘sexy’. This book was written in 1940, and really wasn’t either.
Then, one must be cautious since this book is only the first volume of a two-volume set. I’m not sure why. This entire book isn’t even 300 pages. I’m guessing the author came to a stopping point, needed a break, and he and his publisher decided to go ahead and put out a volume 1. This isn’t an anomaly, but this book didn’t seem to warrant two separate works due to its limited subject matter.
I guess you could argue that ‘subject’ wise, there are two different areas of Zachary Taylor’s life to focus. This book focuses on the ‘soldier’ whereas the follow-up focuses on the ‘president’. There’s a lot of soldiering here. The book really didn’t seem to dwell too much on the man’s personal life and background.
If it did talk about his youth, I don’t remember much. We learn he was a gallant, respectable officer that fought in the War of 1812, the (lesser known) Black Hawk War, and the Mexican-American War in which he served as the General of the entire army. My problem with books about wars is when they drone on in detail about particular battles. It’s a bit much for my brain to keep straight all of the names of the soldiers, the strange towns, the detailed strategies and the rampant comings and goings. I’ve made this observation about a lot of ‘war’ books, so perhaps the problem isn’t the book, but rather me.
When this book took a 50,000-foot view of the conflict, however, is when I enjoyed the book the most. I’ve never actually read an account of the Black Hawk War, and this book did a decent job summing up the high points. The parts of the Mexican-American War that I found most interesting were not the monotonous battle descriptions, but rather the political aspect of the conflict. The Commander in Chief, James Polk, is a Democrat. General Zachary Taylor seems to lean towards an affiliation with the rival Whig party and is becoming vastly popular among the population due to his success in the war. If you’re the president, I guess you can’t let the other guy on the other team look too good, so it seems as though Taylor is pushed out of the top position in the army to make room for someone not as good (General Winfield Scott – ironically also a Whig but not as strong). Why worry about winning a war when there’s politics to be fought over as well?
As I write this review, I’m about 20% through the second volume, and that one is about the same. It gives the details as it should but doesn’t really add a lot of excitement to the narrative. Although this book was less than 300 pages, I think it could have been better had it be scaled back even more, and then maybe combined with volume 2. Maybe such things weren’t thought of in the book publishing world 75 years ago. Also, I really should reserve judgement until after I have completed the second installment. Overall a decent account, but it tended to be rather dry in places.
Then, one must be cautious since this book is only the first volume of a two-volume set. I’m not sure why. This entire book isn’t even 300 pages. I’m guessing the author came to a stopping point, needed a break, and he and his publisher decided to go ahead and put out a volume 1. This isn’t an anomaly, but this book didn’t seem to warrant two separate works due to its limited subject matter.
I guess you could argue that ‘subject’ wise, there are two different areas of Zachary Taylor’s life to focus. This book focuses on the ‘soldier’ whereas the follow-up focuses on the ‘president’. There’s a lot of soldiering here. The book really didn’t seem to dwell too much on the man’s personal life and background.
If it did talk about his youth, I don’t remember much. We learn he was a gallant, respectable officer that fought in the War of 1812, the (lesser known) Black Hawk War, and the Mexican-American War in which he served as the General of the entire army. My problem with books about wars is when they drone on in detail about particular battles. It’s a bit much for my brain to keep straight all of the names of the soldiers, the strange towns, the detailed strategies and the rampant comings and goings. I’ve made this observation about a lot of ‘war’ books, so perhaps the problem isn’t the book, but rather me.
When this book took a 50,000-foot view of the conflict, however, is when I enjoyed the book the most. I’ve never actually read an account of the Black Hawk War, and this book did a decent job summing up the high points. The parts of the Mexican-American War that I found most interesting were not the monotonous battle descriptions, but rather the political aspect of the conflict. The Commander in Chief, James Polk, is a Democrat. General Zachary Taylor seems to lean towards an affiliation with the rival Whig party and is becoming vastly popular among the population due to his success in the war. If you’re the president, I guess you can’t let the other guy on the other team look too good, so it seems as though Taylor is pushed out of the top position in the army to make room for someone not as good (General Winfield Scott – ironically also a Whig but not as strong). Why worry about winning a war when there’s politics to be fought over as well?
As I write this review, I’m about 20% through the second volume, and that one is about the same. It gives the details as it should but doesn’t really add a lot of excitement to the narrative. Although this book was less than 300 pages, I think it could have been better had it be scaled back even more, and then maybe combined with volume 2. Maybe such things weren’t thought of in the book publishing world 75 years ago. Also, I really should reserve judgement until after I have completed the second installment. Overall a decent account, but it tended to be rather dry in places.
January 1, 2020
This first volume of a biography about General, later President, Zachary Taylor was written in 1941, and it sure reads like it was written in 1941! Holman Hamilton writes this in a somewhat detached, matter-of-fact style that had me asking for a few pages of Robert Caro to break things up a bit. To Hamilton's credit, he actually goes out of his way to include personal anecdotes where he can, such as Taylor sleeping on a bunch of old mattresses on a ship since he gave up his general's stateroom for sick and wounded soldiers. So, some of Taylor's personality does come out, it is barely enough to get a general sense of his personality.
Hamilton quickly jumps past Taylor's youth in Kentucky. I am inclined to give him somewhat of a pass here, because even by the time he was writing this, it was 150 years since Taylor was a kid. How many (if any) records could have survived that would be of use to a biographer? While Taylor's family appeared to be well-off, at least by land-holding standards, there does not appear to be the same level of early material that is available for, say, many of the Founding Fathers. I would imagine it is somewhat hard to come by. Still, we really have little clue of what Taylor did before joining the Army in his early 20s; thus there is almost one-third of his life that we do not know very much about.
Taylor was sent all over the place in the Army. For living in an age before the railroads came around, this man was extremely well-traveled in the continental U.S. as it is then was constituted. He had postings all over the South, the West (which back then was Missouri), and the Midwest. Taylor's wife appears so frequently that you can count her appearances with one hand. She is introduced to the reader in one sentence and marrying Taylor in the next one!
Much of this relatively short (by presidential biography standards) book covers Taylor's time as a Major General during the War with Mexico in the 1840s. This is where Taylor made a name for himself by being victorious in several battles, although not without making some costly errors along the way. Hamilton's review of the battles is okay - nothing particularly vivid or exciting. He does attempt to provide a sense of Taylor's thinking and military strategy. He also talks of President Polk's growing dissatisfaction with Taylor, mainly because Polk was a jerk (Hamilton is not the only one to portray Polk in a negative light). The book ends with Taylor's return to the United States in 1847.
Unfortunately, there just is not a lot to choose from when looking for biographies of Zachary Taylor. He is a long-forgotten President, who made his name in a war that is now largely viewed as completely immoral and incited by Polk (at first Hamilton seems like he wants to blame Mexico for starting the war, or at least for provoking the United States into it, but later he does write about Polk's deceitful ways and his desire to grab territory from Mexico). Be warned that if you do read this, be prepared to encounter some racist language, especially as it concern Native Americans. They are not referred to by that moniker once; instead, Hamilton calls them "Indians", "red men", or "savages". While I do recognize the time period in which this was written is much different than where we are today, I still fail to understand why referring to these tribes as "savages" would have been appropriate even then. If I knew of a better Taylor biography to recommend, I would. In the absence of that, at least this is a short (255 pages) and relatively easy read.
Grade: D
Hamilton quickly jumps past Taylor's youth in Kentucky. I am inclined to give him somewhat of a pass here, because even by the time he was writing this, it was 150 years since Taylor was a kid. How many (if any) records could have survived that would be of use to a biographer? While Taylor's family appeared to be well-off, at least by land-holding standards, there does not appear to be the same level of early material that is available for, say, many of the Founding Fathers. I would imagine it is somewhat hard to come by. Still, we really have little clue of what Taylor did before joining the Army in his early 20s; thus there is almost one-third of his life that we do not know very much about.
Taylor was sent all over the place in the Army. For living in an age before the railroads came around, this man was extremely well-traveled in the continental U.S. as it is then was constituted. He had postings all over the South, the West (which back then was Missouri), and the Midwest. Taylor's wife appears so frequently that you can count her appearances with one hand. She is introduced to the reader in one sentence and marrying Taylor in the next one!
Much of this relatively short (by presidential biography standards) book covers Taylor's time as a Major General during the War with Mexico in the 1840s. This is where Taylor made a name for himself by being victorious in several battles, although not without making some costly errors along the way. Hamilton's review of the battles is okay - nothing particularly vivid or exciting. He does attempt to provide a sense of Taylor's thinking and military strategy. He also talks of President Polk's growing dissatisfaction with Taylor, mainly because Polk was a jerk (Hamilton is not the only one to portray Polk in a negative light). The book ends with Taylor's return to the United States in 1847.
Unfortunately, there just is not a lot to choose from when looking for biographies of Zachary Taylor. He is a long-forgotten President, who made his name in a war that is now largely viewed as completely immoral and incited by Polk (at first Hamilton seems like he wants to blame Mexico for starting the war, or at least for provoking the United States into it, but later he does write about Polk's deceitful ways and his desire to grab territory from Mexico). Be warned that if you do read this, be prepared to encounter some racist language, especially as it concern Native Americans. They are not referred to by that moniker once; instead, Hamilton calls them "Indians", "red men", or "savages". While I do recognize the time period in which this was written is much different than where we are today, I still fail to understand why referring to these tribes as "savages" would have been appropriate even then. If I knew of a better Taylor biography to recommend, I would. In the absence of that, at least this is a short (255 pages) and relatively easy read.
Grade: D
December 20, 2025
Zachary Taylor is a virtual unknown among US Presidents, both because of his incomplete administration and because his papers were burned during the Civil War. Hamilton's two volume set is considered one of the better examinations. It is, however, a product of its time and espouses all the beliefs of Manifest Destiny. Native Americans are described as "savages" and "redskins" and their concerns dismissed entirely. And while there is some criticism of James Polk's imperialism, there is still a sense that American = good and noble. Somehow both Taylor and Polk are seen as reasonable. The focus on military movements also makes this somewhat difficult to follow, at least for me. I'm hoping Book 2, which should be more political/cultural, will be a bit more interesting.
January 12, 2024
This is a totally respectable biography for Zachary Taylor. It is only the first part of two however it's incredibly detailed and has nearly a thousand references.
It doesn't necessarily tell a story, and it's more of an in-depth history book however it is goes into so much detail that it's easy to slip into the moments especially during the later phase of his life during the Mexican-American war.
I think some things are questionably said, but it's particularly about other historical characters given that I've read a biography of James k Polk. And so you have more nuance on what Polk was thinking about whenever he was shifting things around in the war. And I think the author just kind of takes a liberty of his own opinion on that perspective but what can we expect because the author is making a book from the perspective of Zachary Taylor.
I don't highly recommend this book, however given all that seems to be readily available for Zachary Taylor, I would recommend this one first and foremost. For anyone who wants to know more about the president. It creates a good picture of the simpler man that he was.
It doesn't necessarily tell a story, and it's more of an in-depth history book however it is goes into so much detail that it's easy to slip into the moments especially during the later phase of his life during the Mexican-American war.
I think some things are questionably said, but it's particularly about other historical characters given that I've read a biography of James k Polk. And so you have more nuance on what Polk was thinking about whenever he was shifting things around in the war. And I think the author just kind of takes a liberty of his own opinion on that perspective but what can we expect because the author is making a book from the perspective of Zachary Taylor.
I don't highly recommend this book, however given all that seems to be readily available for Zachary Taylor, I would recommend this one first and foremost. For anyone who wants to know more about the president. It creates a good picture of the simpler man that he was.
March 2, 2018
This is the first of two volumes of the whole-life biography of Zachary Taylor. This volume covers a bit of family history before his birth up to his triumphant return to Louisiana after the battle of Buena Vista. I thoroughly enjoyed the book pretty much from start to finish. It is an interesting story and well told. My only quibble with it is the few maps are too small to be useful. Some of the battle descriptions would be more easily followed with a good map.
I prefer whole-life biographies of the presidents because I get a better understanding of how each man fits into his time; of (as Douglas Adams said) the basic interconnectedness of all things. In this volume we not only get to know Taylor, but we are introduced to a few of his officers - Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and Jefferson Davis (also Taylor's son-in-law).
I prefer whole-life biographies of the presidents because I get a better understanding of how each man fits into his time; of (as Douglas Adams said) the basic interconnectedness of all things. In this volume we not only get to know Taylor, but we are introduced to a few of his officers - Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and Jefferson Davis (also Taylor's son-in-law).
January 15, 2021
Enjoyed the book immensely but would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for the somewhat difficult style used in the narrations. Perhaps that stilted language was more common in the 1930's.
An old proverb states that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Though I had previously read that Zachary Taylor's skills were left to linger in northern Mexico, this volume explains the reasons. As Zachary Taylor's fame soared (he was a Whig) President Polk (a Democrat) became apprehensive of his party's political future so he appointed the lesser political threat Winfield Scott to take over command in Mexico and invade from Vera Cruz while maintaining Taylor immobile.
Looking forward to vol. 2!
An old proverb states that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Though I had previously read that Zachary Taylor's skills were left to linger in northern Mexico, this volume explains the reasons. As Zachary Taylor's fame soared (he was a Whig) President Polk (a Democrat) became apprehensive of his party's political future so he appointed the lesser political threat Winfield Scott to take over command in Mexico and invade from Vera Cruz while maintaining Taylor immobile.
Looking forward to vol. 2!
June 23, 2025
Hamilton does not provide as critical of work on Taylor as Bauer; however, Hamilton does provide a more clear purpose than Bauer. Of course this first, volume.
June 11, 2023
Not bad, probably would have been unbearably boring if this book was over 250 pages. Zachary Taylor’s life was a lot less exciting than I hoped. A career military officer, Taylor missed most of the action for almost every conflict he was a part of. Most of his life was spent in military forts around the frontier and except for the sporadic Indian skirmish, it was pretty uneventful. That all changed at the start of the Mexican war. Given command of the American army, Taylor played a key role in many of the early victories, which of course projected him onto the national scene as a war hero. This book ends with him as a favorite Whig candidate for the presidency. Now this book was pretty dry at parts but since it was covering 61 years of life in 250 pages it was manageable, the sequel to this book is twice the length of this one and covers the last year or so of his life. I have a feeling it is going to be a very long read.
May 4, 2023
Zachary Taylor is one of the more obscure Presidents in American History, he rarely has been the subject of much scholarship. In this first of two volumes Holman Hamilton set out to write the definitive biography of this forgotten figure. In this volume Hamilton explores Taylor's lengthy military career which includes the War of 1812. The Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. Hamilton skillfully guides Taylor through this period as well as his endeavors at farming. The one thing that is lacking is information on his family life as little is said about his relationship with his wife and children. An easy to read style makes this book all the more enjoyable. I highly recommend it for any wanting to know more about Taylor.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews