MAJOR-GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR. THE early history of a man, educated amid the wilds of Kentucky, while that territory was yet in possession of the Indians, must necessarily be a narrative of the most thrilling interest. The first settlers of that state passed through trials which the American of a more modern date can but feebly appreciate. Swarming with tribes of Indians, hostile to the Union and to each other, scenes were there daily enacted of the most appalling character; burnings, scalpings, and massacres, were of nightly occurrence; and often as the disheartened few of one settlement retired from daily toil, they beheld, far in the distance, the lurid column that announced the ruin of another. Unfortunately, the traditional records of this stirring and eventful period have, in the course of ages, died away; the blasted hopes, the fierce struggles, and tragic fate, of the early settlers, have been buried in the same deep grave with their perpetrators. The Indian and his victim have not only ceased to strive, but have descended into one common oblivion. For this reason, the most rigid investigation has failed to discover much concerning the early life of General Taylor. Even the year of his birth has been a matter of dispute. His father was Mr. Richard Taylor, of whom little is known, except that he was born in Virginia, [March 22d, 1744,] explored Kentucky when a young man, was a colonel in the Revolution, and had five sons and three daughters. His third son, Zachary Taylor, was born [November 24th, 1784] in Orange county. In the following summer, Colonel Taylor emigrated to Kentucky, arriving there but ten years after the irst settlement, and within a short time after his brother Hancock nad been murdered by the Indians. Here he founded his permanent abode, and here the subject of our biography, received his |