Walter H. Taylor - American Civil War

American Civil War

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Taylor joined the Confederate States Army on the secession of Virginia in 1861 and joined the staff of General Robert E. Lee. When General Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, Taylor became assistant adjutant general of that army.

Taylor was no ordinary staff officer, but an exceedingly capable and tireless worker with many responsibilities. He was effectively the Chief Aide-de-camp to General Lee throughout the war. And since Lee was noted for his small, over-worked staff, Taylor carried an enormous burden on his young shoulders. He wrote dispatches and orders for Lee, performed personal reconnaissance, and often carried messages in person to corps and division commanders. (The famous "if practicable" order from Lee to Richard S. Ewell below Cemetery Hill in the Battle of Gettysburg was verbally transmitted by Taylor.) He greeted all persons who came to see Lee, and usually decided whether they would be announced to the General. Taylor eventually attained a rank almost commensurate with his great staff responsibilities, being promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 12, 1863. (In postbellum writings, he is generally referred to as colonel, but this is a customary abbreviated title for addressing a lieutenant colonel.)

Taylor's fiancée was Elizabeth Selden "Bettie" Saunders, daughter of United States Navy Captain John L. Saunders and Mrs. Martha Bland Selden Saunders. Miss Saunders lived during the war with the family of Lewis D. Crenshaw in Richmond, Virginia where she worked in the Confederate Mint and for the Surgeon General in the Confederate Medical Department.

In the last few days of the Siege of Petersburg, as it became clear to Lee and his staff that Petersburg was lost and Richmond should be evacuated, 26 year-old Taylor received special permission from General Lee to go to Richmond to give Miss Saunders "the protection of his name." He sent a messenger ahead to Richmond to advise his bride-to-be and have her make arrangements with Reverend Dr. Charles Minnigerode, the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

After midnight, in the wee hours of April 3, 1865, while the evacuating Confederates fired the city and looters ran wild in its streets, Taylor and Miss Saunders were married in the parlor of the Crenshaw house. Afterward, Lewis Crenshaw accompanied Taylor as far back toward the Confederate lines as safety permitted. One week after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Taylor returned to Richmond with General Lee, picked up his bride, and drove her back to Norfolk in a buggy.