Report prepared by Brian Hogan, Member, SUVCW, Pvt Richard Taylor Camp # 53, and presented to the Camp, January 29, 2001.

PVT. RICHARD E. TAYLOR

Richard Taylor was born in Madison County, Alabama, near New Market, in 1833. He was the eldest of eleven children of James, a shoemaker, and Sarah Taylor. He had six brothers and four sisters.

In 1850 the Taylor family was still living in this general area. They were apparently not prosperous, and there is no record that they bought, or sold, any property in Madison County.

Richard was no longer listed with the family during the 1860 census, having migrated to Indiana. There is no record of exactly when or how he arrived there. Family tradition has it that he probably traveled the Tennessee, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers, and probably worked in flour mills in Illinois and Indiana before settling down in Martin County, Indiana.

Despite the fact that he was born a Southerner, Richard Taylor enlisted in the Union Army at Indianapolis, Indiana on August 16, 1861 and was mustered into Company E, 18th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as a Private, for three years or the war. His enlistment papers describe him as 5ft-10in, having a fair complexion, light hair, and blue eyes, while his occupation was listed as "engineer."

While the regiment was in Cross Timbers Hollow, Arkansas, in the spring of 1862, Private Taylor had a near-fatal reaction to an impure vaccine. He spent two months in a hospital at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, as well as additional time in the regimental hospital. According to friends, who later filed affidavits in support of his wife's pension request, he was never in good health again. He undoubtedly could have requested and received a disability discharge but did not, choosing to remain with the regiment. He reenlisted with 334 others on January 1, 1864, at Indianola, Texas, and enjoyed his Veteran Volunteer furlough back in Indiana in June 1864.

Upon completion of their Veteran Volunteer furlough the regiment was ordered to the Army of the Potomac, arriving at Bermuda Hundred on July 16, and was engaged in several severe skirmishes at Deep Bottom soon thereafter. On August 5 they were ordered to Washington City where the regiment was assigned to the 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, 19th Army Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, commanded by U.S. Grant's "protégé" Major General Philip H. Sheridan. In addition to the 19th Army Corps, Sheridan's forces included the 6th Army Corps, and the small Army of West Virginia, altogether about 30,000 troops. His orders were to clear the Shenandoah Valley of all Confederate forces and to destroy all means of subsistence that lay within the Valley. In June, Robert E. Lee in Richmond had given Jubal Early his orders. As Thomas Lewis in his book The Guns of Cedar Creek expressed it "...His mission was twofold: retake the Valley, because without its ripening wheat, tasseling corn and fattening cattle the Army of Northern Virginia would starve; and threaten the North, as Lee had done in 1862 and 1863, so that the politicians in Washington City would demand protection and weaken Grant's tightening stranglehold on Richmond....". "Old Jube" and his 2nd Corps, later reorganized as the Army of the Valley, proceeded to throw Union General David Hunter out of the Valley and then proceeded down the Valley to the very gates of Washington City, where, Early said, they "scared Abe Lincoln like hell."

Thomas Lewis summarized: "...no one had really expected that they could capture Washington or stay for long in the North. The important thing was that they had drawn off nearly two full corps from Grant's Army of the Potomac, had taken that much pressure off Lee. They lashed and stung the invaders over and over again, surprising them at Snicker's Ferry, routing them at Kernstown, confusing them at Berryville. Every so often they dashed north and tore up the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the cavalry went back into Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg, until the Federals from Abe Lincoln on down were besides themselves with helpless fury...." Sheridan's forces, which outnumbered Early's forces two-to-one, began to move against him. In a campaign that began August 10, Sheridan's army defeated Early's Confederates at  Winchester, and Fisher's Hill, sending Early's forces back up the Valley, to an area south of Harrisonburg, Virginia, leaving Sheridan to believe that he had seen the last of Jubal Early in the Valley of the Shenandoah.

Sheridan turned his attention to destruction. By the time his army reached Woodstock, thirty five miles down the Valley from Harrisonburg, his men had burned "over 2000 barns filled with wheat, hay, and farming implements; over 70 mills filled with flour and wheat; have driven in front of the army over 4000 head of stock, and have killed and issued to the army not less than 3000 sheep." (OR,V43,Pt 1, P30)

On October 6, Early's much depleted Army of the Valley, now numbering only 17,000 men, was on the move again, and was about to give the Federals the fight of their lives at a place called Cedar Creek, where Sheridan's army of 30,000 men was camped, blissfully unaware of their peril, when the Confederates caught up to them on October 18. In a daring move, Early's Confederates attacked the unguarded left flank of the Army of West Virginia in the foggy, misty, early morning hours of October 19,1864. In a brilliantly executed attack Early's forces had, by 10:00 AM, pushed, in panic and disorder, Sheridan's de-moralized troops 4 miles to the north. Inexplicably, Early then stopped! Thomas Lewis wrote "He had 1300 prisoners and 24 Union guns. He had won a great victory, and all that remained was for Sheridan to recognize the act by withdrawing from the field...."

General Sheridan, who had been absent from his command for the preceding several days conferring with Secretary of War Stanton in Washington City, returned to Winchester, 18 miles north of Cedar Creek, on the afternoon of the 18th. At about 6:00 AM of the 19th he began receiving reports that "something" was happening at Cedar Creek, but it was not until 9:00 AM that he began to ride towards his troops. He soon began seeing signs of trouble ahead. Wagons and stragglers headed north! With that, he began his soon to be famous "Ride", immortalized by the poet Thomas Buchanan Read. Sheridan's arrival at the scene was the occasion of great joy among the badly demoralized troops, who had been expecting a renewed Confederate attack. Sheridan began preparing his army for this eventuality, which never materialized as Early still expected that the Federals would retreat. Sheridan waited until about 4:00 PM, then unleashed his army! He ordered the 6th Corps to advance on the left, the 19th Corps to advance on the right with the right-most division to wheel left and drive the Confederate towards the Valley Pike. He put the Army of West Virginia on the far left, along with Merritt's Cavalry, and ordered Custer's Cavalry to the right of the 19th Corps to cover their flank. All elements advanced at the same time. It was not easy by any stretch of the imagination but by nightfall at about 6:00 PM "Old Jube's" army had been routed and were streaming back up the Valley Pike.

It was during this action that Private Richard Taylor, who had been detailed for duty as a Commissary Guard but joined his regiment in the battle, captured a Confederate flag, an action for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. His citation reads simply "Capture of flag", without identification of the unit from which captured.

After review of recent publications, including a reprint of a 1905 publication The Returned Flags, and Colours of the Gray, An Illustrated Index of Wartime Flags From the Museum of the Confederacy's Collection, the flag captured has been identified as one of the First National Pattern, thirteen six-pointed stars, (25"X47"). It now resides in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, being one of the returned flags. (The First National flag had a field of one white stripe between two red stripes, and a blue canton with anywhere from 7 to 13 stars. This type of flag was carried throughout the war by various units, and commonly known as the "Stars and Bars").

There were 12 Confederate battle flags of various types captured during this battle. On October 20, Sheridan sent Brigadier General George A. Custer, commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division, to Washington City with the men who had captured them. According to Thomas Lewis, "...he draped 10 of the flags on the locomotive that pulled his train into the city. He marched his detail through the streets to the War Department while he dashed off to get his wife; this was too good for her to miss...." Most of the men who captured flags were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on October 26, 1864, with the exceptions of Private Richard Taylor and Corporal Frederick A. Lyon, 1st Vermont Cavalry, Co A, whose awards are dated November 21 and 26, respectively.

Subsequent to the end of Sheridan's Valley campaign in November the 18^th Indiana was ordered to Savannah, Georgia where they spent several months building fortifications, and remained in Georgia until it was mustered out on August 28,1865.

Richard returned to Washington, Indiana where he married Lucinda Smith, daughter of Raphael Smith of a pioneer Harrison township family, of Daviess County, Indiana on May 9, 1867, Richard was 34 years old, Lucinda was 29. It was the first marriage for both. They had 5 children; twin daughters, born in 1868, and 3 sons, born in 1873, 1875, and 1878. Richard Taylor died February 23, 1890, in Washington, Indiana. He had been raised in a Protestant family but had no church affiliation until near his death. Records of St. Simon's Catholic Church in Washington, Indiana indicate that he was baptized a Catholic just before his death and he was buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Washington. Richard's grave is unmarked, but his remains are believed to be in an area known today as Pioneer Park, where the city dedicated, in 1967, a granite memorial to early pioneers who settled in Washington.

In 1976 the Madison County Military Heritage Commission in Huntsville, Alabama dedicated a magnificent display in the Madison County Courthouse lobby to honor Richard Taylor. It includes his picture in uniform and a replica of his Medal of Honor. From the Commission the city of Washington became aware of Richard Taylor and in 1979 added a bronze marker, provided by the Veteran's Administration, to their memorial to honor their adopted son. At the dedication, a wreath was proudly placed at the memorial by local Richard Taylor descendents. For many years, Richard's Medal of Honor was secreted in the possession of his son James, in Seattle, Washington, and its existence was known to perhaps only a few descendents. James died in 1947 and the medal was inherited by his son Kyle. Leaving no descendents when he died in 1976 the medal then came into possession of Richard's granddaughter, Mrs. Helen Taylor Karam, in Nogales, Arizona. In 1984, at a family reunion, it was decided that the medal should be maintained by descendents with the Taylor name, and the medal was passed on to Wayne Taylor, a great-great-grandson living in Deming, New Mexico, and the only Taylor descendent with sons to carry on this family tradition.

Acknowledgements: Much of the details of Richard Taylor's life came from a paper written by Ms. Ranee Pruitt, Archivist at the Huntsville Public Library and is used with her permission.

Sources:

Richard Taylor family files in Huntsville Public Library The Guns of Cedar Creek, Thomas A. Lewis, Harper and Row. New York, NY, 1988

Colours of the Gray, The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, VA, undated The Returned Battle Flags , repr Rank and File Publications, Redondo Beach, CA,1995 Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Frederick A.Dyer,repr Morningside Bookstore, Dayton, OH, 1978

Brian Hogan badger@hiwaay.net