Richard Taylor, Soldier Prince of Dixie - Hardcover

Parrish, T. Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807820326 ISBN 13: 9780807820322

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr, 1992

Synopsis

Recounts the life of a man who was a prominent Louisiana sugar planter, a Confederate Army officer, and an influential politician

About this title

Reviews

This definitive biography by the author of Confederate Imprints: A Bibliography presents Taylor, familiar to historians as one of the Confederacy's better generals, in a broader context. A wealthy plantation owner, son of President Zachary Taylor, he saw himself as a principled aristocrat and conservative critic of democracy (whether northern or southern), failing to realize that his position was sustained by his involvement in the democratic struggle for power and capitalist competition for wealth. Only Taylor's service to the Confederacy, during which he proved himself as both a combat leader and an administrator, reflected his ideal of public duty. His postwar assertion of southern rights within the Democratic party confirmed his status as the titular "soldier prince of Dixie"--a characterization well suited to a life lived on the boundary between myth and reality.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From rare-book dealer Parrish, an engaging and exhaustively researched biography of an important and intriguing, though rarely studied, Confederate leader. Had he accomplished nothing in the Civil War, Richard Taylor would still have been historically noteworthy: Gifted problem-son of Zachary Taylor and brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, he graduated from Yale in 1845 at age 19 and acquired great wealth at his father's death in 1850. As heir to the fabulous plantation of Fashion, Taylor became one of Louisiana's most prominent planters and slaveholders (and, thanks to his consequent involvement in local politics, one of the state's leading political figures). Parrish depicts Taylor as highly intelligent, cultivated, and enlightened, sensitive to the moral dilemmas of slavery and humane and paternalistic toward his many slaves. According to the author, Taylor decried slavery as a moral evil--but not evil enough, apparently, for him to manumit his own slaves. Taylor disapproved of the radical rhetoric of the secessionist ``fire-eaters,'' but, like many Southern planters, he was radicalized by John Brown's abortive raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Though his father was a Whig President, and he himself nurtured pro-Union sentiments, Taylor gradually allowed himself to be drawn (albeit, Parrish indicates, with great reluctance) into the secessionist fringe of the Democratic Party at the fractious 1860 Charleston convention. After Louisiana's secession (which he voted in favor of), Taylor entered Confederate service as a colonel of the Louisiana Brigade and achieved distinction as a commander under Stonewall Jackson in the legendary Valley campaign in 1862. Transferred to Louisiana to repel the Federal offensive there, he succeeded in 1864 in stopping General Banks's Red River Campaign. After the war, Taylor became a leading advocate of states' rights and finished Destruction and Reconstruction, one of the most distinguished Civil War memoirs, shortly before his death in 1879. A thorough and significant contribution to Civil War scholarship. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Confederate General Taylor was the son of one president (Zachary Taylor) and the brother-in-law of another (Confederate Jefferson Davis). In addition to his military career, he was active politically and was a gifted writer. Taylor's most important command was his repulse of the Union's Red River campaign. This book examines all the facets of Taylor's life but is, at heart, a military biography. Because Parrish presents a surprisingly favorable view of Taylor's military ability, a section comparing his opinions with those of other generals would have been very useful. Nevertheless, academic libraries may want to consider this solid though unanalytical biography.
- Fritz Buckallew, Univ. of Central Oklahoma Lib., Edmond
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807820326
• ISBN 13: 9780807820322
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 570