Zachary Taylor

On November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, Zachary Taylor was born into a family that soon moved to Kentucky's frontier. He entered the United States Army in 1808 and spent decades in frontier warfare, including campaigns in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. That long service gave him a national reputation before he ever held elective office.

Taylor became a national hero through victories at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. Elected president in 1848, he confronted the explosive question of whether slavery would expand into the territories taken from Mexico. Although a southern slaveholder, he resisted immediate sectional compromise and favored the rapid admission of California and New Mexico as states.

Taylor's sudden death in 1850 cleared the path for Millard Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850, making his brief presidency part of the chain of events leading to the Civil War. His military fame also illustrated how wartime heroism remained a powerful route into antebellum national politics.