Charles Frederick Taylor, the youngest brother of Bayard Taylor, the noted author, poet, and world traveler, was for a brief time Colonel of the celebrated "Bucktail" regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. His letters have remained in the family since his death at Gettysburg and arc now in the possession of Charles F. Hobson, one of the present editors and greatgrandson of Annie Taylor Carey, Colonel Taylor's sister.

       Taylor was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1840, the youngest child of Joseph and Rebecca Way Taylor. He was a descendant of colonial settlers of English and German ancestry, including Robert Taylor, "a rich Quaker" who came to the new world in 1681. At the time of his son's birth, Joseph Taylor was completing a three-year term as sheriff of Chester County. Shortly thereafter the Taylors moved to "Hazeldell," the family farm near Kennett Square. There Fred received his early education in the village school, supplementing this with home instruction, and later attended the academy taught by his cousin, Dr. Franklin Taylor. Though hampered by feeble health as a youth, Fred was a promising scholar, demonstrating a special aptitude for the study of languages. At the age of fifteen he announced his intention to attend college and pursue an academic career. Bayard, who had not attended college, gently advised against such a step, not wishing to see his brother become "a mere bookworm, unfit for the active, energetic life of the present time." If, however, Fred were determined upon this course, he recommended Harvard as "decidedly the first institution in the country." Fred stuck by his decision, but instead of enrolling at an established eastern college, he chose to enter the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in the fall of 1855. Under the dynamic and progressive leadership of President Henry Philip Tappan, the University of Michigan was rapidly acquiring a reputation as one of the outstanding institutions of higher learning in the United States.

       At the end of his first year at the University Fred received an irresistible invitation from Bayard, already famous as an author of popular travel accounts, to join him on a European tour. The two brothers, accompanied by their sisters, Annie and Emma, sailed from New York in July, 1856, and landed at Liverpool. After traveling through England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, Fred and his sisters spent the winter in Lausanne, while Bayard journeyed to Sweden and Lapland. They rejoined their brother at Gotha in May, 1857, a few weeks before returning to America. The European trip was a broadening educational experience for Fred and brought the added benefit of improved health. "I feel that I have begun almost a new life," he wrote, "everything seems under such a different aspect-I scarcely know how to express what I feel." Much of his time in Europe was spent studying languages. He became proficient in French and competent in German, which he studied "by means of the French.”

       Fred resumed his studies at Ann Arbor in the fall Of I857, but owing to financial difficulties he was forced to abandon his goal of becoming a scholar. He left college at the end of the spring term of 1858 and returned to Kennett Square to take over the management of Hazeldell, which he hoped to make a profitable farm through the application of progressive agricultural techniques. In his eagerness to make the necessary improvements, however, the youthful farmer incurred numerous and pressing debts, a situation aggravated by a general economic depression. With some embarrassment he had to call on Bayard to pay his bills. Nevertheless undaunted, he responded to the challenge with renewed determination and confidence: "I believe that it will only depend upon myself whether this farm carried on properly will be self-sustaining and more, or not; and I am desirous of testing my own capabilities.... I have a heart for the work and I think I have energy enough to carry it through." By the spring of 1861 the outlook at Hazeldell was much brighter, and Fred declared that he would soon "be able to make farming something more than mere drudgery."

       Once again, however, circumstances intervened to force a change of plans. Along with many other Pennsylvania farmers in the spring of 1961, Fred Taylor responded with alacrity to President Lincoln's call for volunteers on the outbreak of the Civil War. On April 20, he called a meeting of the neighborhood men in the Kennett Borough Hall and organized a company of riflemen. A few weeks later Taylor, who had unanimously been elected captain, and his men marched to Camp Curtin, near Harrisburg, where they were in- orated into the 42nd Regiment, 13th Reserves. Recruited and P organized by Thomas Leiper Kane, this regiment was soon to win fame as the "Bucktails." The Chester countians became Company H, the twenty-one-year-old Taylor retaining the captaincy.

       The Bucktails, having become a part of the Army of the Potomac during the summer of 1861, saw little action during the first six months of the war. Most of their time was spent in an endless round of drilling and marching in the vicinity of Washington. In the spring of 186-2, while the main body of the regiment participated in McClellan's Peninsular Campaign, four Bucktail companies, including Taylor's, were attached to General George D. Bayard's "Flying Brigade" in the Valley of Virginia, where Stonewall Jackson was conducting a brilliant series of diversionary raids. At Harrisonburg on June 6, 186,2, Taylor experienced his first real test of combat. Ordered to reinforce two regiments of cavalry which had been ambushed in the woods, the small Bucktail battalion, under the command of Colonel Kane) encountered a superior force of Confederates under Turner Ashby. "The situation was hopeless," Taylor later recalled. Caught in "a raging crossfire," thee men "broke cover and ran." Captain Taylor, second in command and not seeing Colonel Kane, who had been wounded, succeeded in rallying the men for "one good volley" for the purpose of making an orderly retreat. Most of the survivors managed to escape, but Taylor and the wounded Kane were taken prisoner. Though his clothes were "badly torn" by bullets, Taylor miraculously was unhurt.

       The two captured Bucktail officers, after being rescued and then recaptured, were subsequently paroled. Taylor spent the next four months in frustrating inactivity at Annapolis while waiting for news of his exchange so that he could rejoin his regiment. He did enjoy one pleasant diversion, however. He met Alice Green, the daughter of his hostess, and later became engaged to her. Unfortunately, little is known of the romance, for the letters she wrote to Fred after his departure from Annapolis were later destroyed. The Taylor family evidently disapproved of the match because Miss Green's father was a slaveholder.

       By the end of his first year of service Captain Taylor had established a solid reputation as a first-rate officer. He took seriously the duties and responsibilities of his position and won the respect of his men and fellow officers) most of whom were much older than he. As early as January, 1862, he was given temporary command of the regiment while Kane was absent from camp. This experience considerably boosted his self-confidence: "It is no slight honor to command successfully a regt. such as this even for so short a period. Every thing goes now evenly as in our best days and I am not presumptuous ... to attribute this change in some slight measure to my own efforts while in command." A natural leader ("I seem to have some aptitude for this business," he confided to his sister), Taylor thrived on military life. The war quickened his mental and emotional ascent to adulthood, already at an advanced stage before the conflict began. "This war has killed off much worthless trash, has ruined many of promise," he admitted, "but still more it has brought out and developed and educated."

       A gallant and popular officer, self-assured and ambitious, Taylor was destined for promotion. His immediate goal was to obtain command of a regiment, preferably the Bucktails. By state law officers of the volunteer corps were elected by the men and then received their commissions from the governor. In the first Bucktail election Kane had been chosen colonel., but he subsequently deferred to the more experienced Charles John Biddle, who had fought in the Mexican War. The latter resigned in December, 1861, to enter Congress. In the subsequent election Kane was defeated by Hugh W. McNeil. In that election Taylor, though not yet twenty-two, was urged to become a candidate, being told that he could be elected over both, but he prudently declined. Time and circumstance-plus no little personal initiative--- eventually brought him a colonel's commission. While Taylor was biding his time at Annapolis, Kane was promoted to brigadier general and McNeil was killed at Antietam. The latter's death left the regiment without a field officer. Taylor, as senior captain, expected to assume command of the Bucktails and receive the colonelcy if only he could be released from his parole in time. The election system had by this time been abolished by order of the Secretary of War, but the state law requiring election of officers had not yet been repealed. Accordingly, Taylor, in conjunction with Edward A. Irvin and William R. Hartshorne, arranged to have a petition circulated among the officers and men of the regiment requesting that Taylor be commissioned colonel, Irvin, lieutenant-colonel., and Hartshorne, major. The petition was then sent up the chain of command: General Truman Seymour, brigade commander, General George G. Meade, division commander, General John F. Reynolds, corps commander, and Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin-all of whom were favorably disposed. The Governor, however., refrained from issuing the commissions until after the state legislature changed the law in February, 1863.

       Taylor finally received word of his exchange during the second week in November, 1862. Though not yet officially appointed colonel, he was ordered to take command of the Bucktails. Rejoining the regiment south of Alexandria, Virginia, the new commander was greeted with "a hearty cheer." He found the regiment in poor condition-"I shall have enough to do in reorganizing it for a time," he wrote. The task was all the more urgent, he realized, for "we shall probably have a fight at Fredericksburg." The battle of Fredericksburg began less than a month later, and for the Union forces under the command of Ambrose Burnside it was a disaster. Superiority of numbers was more than offset by disadvantage of position, as a series of Federal charges were bloodily repulsed by Confederate artillery and musket fire. The Bucktails suffered heavy losses-190 out of 300 who entered the fight, according to Taylor, who was wounded in the arm after his horse was shot beneath him. Despite the terrible toll the Bucktails acquitted themselves well under difficult circumstances. In his report General Reynolds singled out Taylor as "among those conspicuous for coolness and judgment.” After the fiasco at Fredericksburg the battered and fatigued Bucktails enjoyed a welcome respite from fighting, not participatingin another major engagement until Gettysburg. They were assigned to the defense of Washington and encamped at Fairfax Station in northern Virginia. By late March, 1863, Taylor could report that the regiment was once again "in excellent working order.

       Earlier that month-after what had seemed an interminable delay-he had received his coveted colonel's commission. "I am, perhaps, the youngest Colonel, in point of years, in the service and do not under-value the honor or the responsibilities it brings with it," he wrote to Bayard. To his sister he confidently declared that he would “earn an honorable reputation as Colonel or even fill with credit a still higher position."

       With the approach of warm weather the young Colonel was anxious to return to action. The present duty was "tiresome" and did "not suit the impatient 'Bucktail,' " he complained. He was elated when orders came in late June to move at a moment's notice: "I presume we shall have a stirring campaign. I am very glad of it. We have been here long enough." Soon the Bucktails were once again on home soil-at Gettysburg, where the two great armies under Robert E. Lee and George G. Meade were converging. The Pennsylvania Reserves were ordered to defend Little Round Top, and the Bucktails were in the thick of the fierce fighting which took place. there on July -2. Late in the afternoon of that day Colonel Taylor, on foot, led a charge down the hill across Plum Run and up the slope to the stone wall. After a brief stand at the wall the Confederates, thoroughly routed, retreated through the woods to the wheat field, but the Bucktails, their colonel constantly urging them forward, pushed on in hot pursuit. Near the edge of the wheat field Taylor, seeing that he was well in advance of the line and unsupported, ordered a halt. It was too late, however. A much larger force of Confederates opened fire on him and his group of about twenty men. The Colonel was about to step behind a tree for shelter when a sharpshooter's bullet pierced his heart. He died on the spot a few minutes later.

       The body was recovered and sent back to Kennett Square. The funeral took place on July 8, 1863, "in the midst of a pouring rain," attended mostly by "old men and women." Among those present in mourning was Alice Green, to whom Taylor had recently been engaged. Burial was at Longwood Cemetery, not far from Hazeldell. In death Taylor received a number of generous tributes. Brigadier General Samuel W. Crawford spoke of Taylor as "the gallant and brave leader of the Bucktail Regiment," who "fell leading his regiment to the charge. No braver soldier and patriot has given his life to the cause." According to an anonymous writer in a Gettysburg paper, Taylor had "a bright and glorious career" before him, "but in surrendering so gallant a young life in a cause so patriotic, history must embalm his memory.”Bayard Taylor, in Europe when he learned of his brother's death, wrote that he "had brighter hopes for him than for myself: he was better and nobler than I He wrote a short poem to commemorate his fallen brother) as did his poet friends, Richard H. Stoddard and George H. Boker. In 1905, the Regimental Association of the Bucktails erected a granite marker over the spot where Colonel Taylor fell.

       Taylor's principal correspondent during the war was his sister Annie. Eight years older than Fred, she took over the difficult responsibility of running the farm during her brother's absence. That she was a strong-willed and rather formidable lady is clearly brought out in her summary dismissal of Michael, an Irish hired hand, for voting the "Secesh" (Democratic) ticket in the elections of 1862.

The Letters

June 10th, 1861	July 9th, 1861	December 6th, 1861
January 20th, 1862	February 2nd, 1862	May 4th, 1862
July 8th, 1862	August 31st, 1862	October 15th, 1862
October 22nd, 1862	October 25th, 1862	December 16th, 1862
January 19th, 1863	April 1st, 1863	June 24th, 1863
-	July 11th, 1863	-

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