Zachary Taylor, the twelfth president, was born in 1784 in Virginia. Soon after his birth, his family moved to a plantation near Louisville, Kentucky, where he then grew up.
Taylor began a long career in the Army when he was 23, soon after Lewis and Clark returned from their explorations. Over the following 30 years, he served in many frontier outposts from Louisiana to northern Wisconsin. The way he led forces to victories in the Mexican-American War earned him the nickname “Old Rough and Ready.”
Taylor became a national hero and an obvious choice as a candidate for the presidency. In 1848, he won the general election in a three-candidate race, as a Whig. He had much military experience, but little as a holder of public office. The Whigs were dismayed to find him an independent thinker, not dedicated to only the party’s ideas.
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