Polk ordered Taylor into disputed lands on the Texas-Mexico border. Events then happened rapidly. With superior artillery, Taylor easily defeated the substantially larger Mexican forces in Palo Alto, Mexico. Taylor then attacked the "un-destroyable" city of Monterrey, inflicting heavy casualties on its Mexican defenders, leaving killed or wounded.
General Winfield Scott, commander of all U. Mexican General Santa Anna, intercepting a letter from Scott to Taylor, knew that "Old Zack" another nickname would be left with just 6, men—most of whom were nonregulars.
The word of how Old Zack had fought alongside his troops in hand-to-hand combat at both Monterey and Buena Vista spread like a prairie fire across the nation. Taylor was compared to American war heroes George Washington and Andrew Jackson in the popular press. Stories were told about his informal dress, the tattered straw hat on his head, and the casual way he always sat atop his beloved horse, "Old Whitey," while shots buzzed around his head.
The criticism that he had allowed the Mexican army at Monterrey to surrender without disbanding held no sway in the popular mind. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. The compromise legislation did not prohibit slavery in the Mexican Cession. It admitted California as a free state, and it allowed for the organization of Utah and New Mexico as formal territories, rather than as states, without any federal restrictions on slavery.
This left open the possibility that any states formed from those territories could opt for slavery, and indeed the language of the compromise explicitly committed future Congresses to admit them as slave states if they so desired. Many northerners were outraged by that concession to the South, and it intensified their opposition to any further extension of slavery.
This was the issue that pushed the nation down the road to Civil War. At a time when strong leadership and party politics were absolutely essential, Taylor probably damaged his cause by refusing to engage directly with Congress or to pull together a functional coalition. He held onto his belief that the President should stand above party politics. On July 4, , after attending celebrations in Washington, D. He died on July 9, and more than , people lined the funeral route to see the hero laid to rest.
He left behind a country sharply divided and a vice president, Millard Fillmore, who supported the Compromise of In the end, Taylor had limited personal impact on the presidency, and his months in office did little to slow the approach of the great national tragedy of the Civil War. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center.
University of Virginia Miller Center. Zachary Taylor: Life in Brief. Breadcrumb U. Winfield Scott struck at Mexico City from Veracruz. On February 22—23, , Taylor's depleted force turned back a Mexican offensive in the battle of Buena Vista. The victories in Texas and Mexico set off a Taylor presidential boom, especially when it became clear that he was a Whig.
In he received the Whig nomination and won the presidency. Although he was a southerner and a slaveowner, as president he disdained support from the moderate Whig leadership and increasingly allied himself with the antislavery faction of the party.
He opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories and resisted the Texas claims to the region around Santa Fe, going so far as to insist he would personally lead the army to prevent any extension of Texas authority. Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith in They had six children, one of whom, Richard Taylor , was a lieutenant general in the Confederate States Army.
Taylor died on July 9, , while still in office. His death removed a major obstacle to the adoption of the Compromise of , which set the western and northern borders of Texas.
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