Background
Taylor was born in Rhode Island in November 7, 1811. He was the son of Capt. William Vigneron Taylor and Abby (White) Taylor.
Taylor was born in Rhode Island in November 7, 1811. He was the son of Capt. William Vigneron Taylor and Abby (White) Taylor.
After brief study at the naval school in New York he became passed midshipman (1834).
Through the influence of his father, who spoke of him at sixteen as "a very fair French and Latin scholar" with "some knowledge of rigging and drafting" gained at the Boston Navy Yard, he was made midshipman April 1, 1828. He was in the Hudson on the Brazil station 1829-32.
He joined the Peacock on a cruise to the East Indies, 1835-36. When his ship grounded on Mazeira Island, Arabia, September 21, 1835, he commanded a cutter which was sent to Muscat for aid and to convey thither Edmund Roberts, the United States diplomatic agent. The boat was at sea five days and was pursued for several hours by pirates.
Made lieutenant in 1840, Taylor was on coast survey duty for some time, then on the Brazil station. During the Mexican War he was in the St. Mary's at the attack on Tampico and later in command of an 8-inch gun on shore at the siege of Vera Cruz. He was promoted commander in 1855. During this decade his work was largely at Washington in ordnance, in connection with which he attained some reputation, as evidenced by Admiral Du Pont's characterization of him later as "an admirable ordnance officer". In July 1862 he was made captain and assigned to the steam sloop Housatonic on the Charleston blockade. Here he was at various times senior officer, notably on January 31, 1863, when the blockaders were attacked by the Confederate rams Chicora and Palmetto State. He was Admiral Dahlgren's fleet captain during the operations against Morris Island, July 10-19, 1863, and afterward until he was invalided home on July 24. In May of the next year he reported to the Juniata at Philadelphia and commanded her during the first attack on Fort Fisher, December 24-25, 1864, in which she was hulled six or seven times and lost five killed and eight wounded from the bursting of a Parrott rifle. Apparently at this time he had not fully recovered from his illness of the preceding year, for his fellow captain, Charles Steedman, in a letter of Jan. 6 speaks of his "extremely nervous temperament" and adds, "Poor Taylor has gone home completely broken down physically".
After the war he was made commodore (1866), and rear admiral (1871). He commanded the northern squadron of the Pacific fleet (1869 - 71), was president of the examining board (1871 - 72), and had command of the South Atlantic station from May 1872 until his retirement for age November 7, 1873. His death from paralysis occurred at his home in Washington, D. C. , and he was buried in the Congressional Cemetery.
He was married April 30, 1840, to Caroline, daughter of Gold S. Silliman of Brooklyn, N. Y.
