The Birthday of Eternity

Richard "Dick" Taylor, died April 12, 1879

After the Civil War, Richard Taylor was active in Democratic Party politics, interceded on behalf of Jefferson Davis with President Andrew Johnson, and was a leading political opponent of Northern Reconstruction policies. 

He had the support of a wealthy New York City attorney, Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow, one of the Democratic party's most effective powerbrokers. 

Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow

Shortly after the death of his wife, Myrthe, in 1875, Taylor moved with his three daughters to Winchester, Virginia.

He completed his memoirs, Destruction and Reconstruction, only a few weeks before his death.  The book was published in 1879.

On April 12, 1879, Taylor died at the age of 53 in Barlow's home in New York City, succumbing to severe internal congestion resulting from his long battle with rheumatoid arthritis. 

Funeral services were held the next day at the Church of Transfiguration in New York.

He was buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans