1832 Four Page Letter From Zachary Taylor For Sale

This is a handwritten letter from Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States, written during his military service before his presidency.

Letter Identification

Author: Zachary Taylor, then a Colonel in the 1st Regiment of U.S. Infantry.

Recipient: His brother, Hancock Taylor, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Location: Sent from Prairie du Chien (Fort Crawford), in present-day Wisconsin.

Date Context: The letter mentions the "month of October" and the quietness of the "Indians in our vicinity," likely placing it in the early 1830s, around the time of the Black Hawk War (1832).

Key Content Highlights

Weather and Location: Taylor remarks on the "finest fall" experienced in these latitudes and notes that Prairie du Chien is an "out of the way place."

Regional Stability: He reports that the local Native American tribes are "quiet" and expects them to remain so for a time.

Family News: He mentions that "Peggy" (his wife, Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor) is "about, but not in very good health" and sends wishes to the extended family in Kentucky.

Financial Notations: The document contains several handwritten arithmetic calculations and monetary figures (e.g., "$4.66," "6900.00"), likely related to personal business or plantation management.

Historical Significance

Handwritten letters from this period of Taylor's life are valuable historical artifacts. They provide a personal look at a future president's military career on the American frontier and his close ties to his family and plantations in the South