Background
Taylor was born in Tilton, New Hampshire, in 1862. He was the son of John Franklin and Lydia J. (Proctor) Taylor, and a descendant of Nathan Taylor who was in Massachusetts about 1690.
Taylor was born in Tilton, New Hampshire, in 1862. He was the son of John Franklin and Lydia J. (Proctor) Taylor, and a descendant of Nathan Taylor who was in Massachusetts about 1690.
He attended public schools, the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, and the United States Military Academy from which he was graduated in 1884 as a second lieutenant of engineers.
His early career in the army was concerned with river and harbor developments on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, except for one year, 1888-89, during which he was assistant professor of mathematics at the Academy. His long service in civil engineering did not change until 1903, when he was sent to the Philippines to command a battalion of engineer troops. Two years later he returned to the United States to construct defenses and to improve navigation at the east entrance of Long Island Sound.
In 1911 he was called to Washington as assistant to the chief of engineers of the United States army. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1915 and was placed in charge of the harbor work about New York City and along the Hudson River. In May 1917 he was selected to be chief engineer of the American Expeditionary Force in France. He sailed the same month as a member of General Pershing's staff, with only two captains and three clerks to assist him in organizing abroad the extensive engineering forces which would be needed. He selected and prepared plans for ports for the debarkation of American armies. He inspected, planned, and constructed bases and training camps for the two million American soldiers in France. He assumed the management of certain French railroads, built connecting lines, and improved equipment--a task which he completed with remarkable efficiency and speed. In addition to construction, his duties as chief engineer required the procurement and placement of an enormous mass of engineering supplies for troops in modern warfare. This included equipment for offensive and defensive gas warfare, searchlights, trench tools, material for wire entanglements and for mining, explosives for destroying similar works of the enemy, and the training of troops to use them. An elaborate forestry service was organized to obtain the immense quantity of lumber needed.
As American troops took over parts of the front the engineering department, under Taylor, built water systems for them, provided electricity, constructed roads, and performed many miscellaneous duties. Schools were opened for training recently appointed engineer officers in their duties.
When the spring campaigns of 1918 started the original force of five assistants had been increased to 31, 000 officers and men, and Taylor had become a brigadier-general. In September 1918 Taylor returned to the United States to be once more assistant chief of engineers at the War Department. In June 1924 he succeeded to the office of major-general and became chief of engineers. In the two years during which he occupied this position, the engineering project at Muscle Shoals, Ala. , was practically completed, and under his supervision, large and important improvements were made on the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers. He was retired in 1926 and died at his home in Washington, D. C.
On October 30, 1901, he had been married to Adele Austin Yates, who, with their two children, survived him.