Zachary Taylor National Cemetery - History

History

The land which became Zachary Taylor National Cemetery was part of Richard Taylor's 400-acre (160 ha) estate, known as Springfield, given to him due to his service in the American Revolutionary War. The house the family lived in for most of their time in Louisville is still nearby, and is called the Zachary Taylor House.

On November 1, 1850, Zachary Taylor was buried at his family's burial ground; he had initially been buried at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C..

In 1883, the commonwealth of Kentucky placed a fifty foot monument near Zachary Taylor's grave. It is topped by a life-sized statue of Zachary Taylor. In 1930 a sundial was placed to further memorialize Zachary Taylor.

The Taylor family in the 1920s initiated the effort to turn the Taylor burial grounds into a national cemetery. The commonwealth of Kentucky donated two pieces of land for the project, turning the half-acre Taylor family cemetery into 16 acres (6.5 ha). However, the Army judge advocate general ruled against attaining the Taylor cemetery; the Taylor graves are within the walls of the national cemetery, but are the one part of the national cemetery not owned by the government of United States of America (although the National Cemetery Administration does take care of the Taylor graves as it does the rest of the national cemetery). However, when the national cemetery was created, a new mausoleum was built for Zachary Taylor; it was made of limestone with a granite base, with a marble interior.

There have been several attempts to increase the size of the cemetery, but each time local interests stopped the growth.

The National Cemetery made the national news on June 17, 1991, when Zachary Taylor was exhumed to see if he had been poisoned, and if that was his actual cause of death.