America at 250 Series
Zachary Taylor was born in 1784 in Virginia, but he grew up on the Kentucky frontier, in a country still thick with forest and danger. He joined the army at twenty-three, and he stayed for forty years.
He fought the Shawnee, the Black Hawk, and the Seminole. The men called him Old Rough and Ready, because he dressed like a farmer, slept on the ground, and never asked them to do anything he would not. In 1846, on the dry plains of northern Mexico, he won four battles in a row against armies twice his size, and the country fell in love with him.
He had never voted in a presidential election. He had no party, no platform, and no patience for politicians. They nominated him anyway, and he won.
Sixteen months in, he ate cherries and iced milk on a hot Fourth of July, and five days later, he was dead.
