Postbellum Life
After the war, Richard Taylor wrote his memoirs, Destruction and Reconstruction, which is one of the most credited reports of the Civil War. He was active in Democratic Party politics, interceded on behalf of Jefferson Davis with President Andrew Johnson, and was a leading political opponent of Northern Reconstruction policies. He died in New York City and is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans.
Most of Taylor's contemporaries, subordinates, and fellow generals make mention many times of his military prowess. Nathan Bedford Forrest commented that "He's the biggest man in the lot. If we'd had more like him, we would have licked the Yankees long ago." "Dick Taylor was a born soldier", asserted a close friend. "Probably no civilian of his time was more deeply versed in the annals of war." Stonewall Jackson and Richard S. Ewell frequently commented on their conversations with Taylor. Ewell stated that he came away from his conversations with Taylor more knowledgeable and impressed with the amount of information Taylor possessed.
Read more about this topic: Richard Taylor (general)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I stand in awe of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one,—that my body might,—but I fear bodies, I tremble to meet them. What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature,—daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it,—rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)