I'm related to Zachery Taylor the 12th President. His daughter married Jefferson Davis which means i'm related to somewhat.
Then you are also related to CSA Capt John Taylor Wood, of the Confederate raider, CSS TALLAHASSEE.
Wood was Zachery Taylor's grandson, and Jefferson Davis' nephew.
When he was a LT, he served on the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) during the Hampton Roads battle with the USS Monitor.
After the fall of Richmond, he was captured along with Uncle Davis near Irwinvill , Georgia May 3,1865, but bribed a Dutch Union soldier with two $20 gold double eagles to let him escape.
He caught up with CSA Sec of War John C Breckinridge just over the Florida border, and met up with CSA Sec of State, Judah P Benjamin dressed as a peddler with a wagon at Black Creek, where they were met by river blockade runner, CSA Col Hubbart A Hart with his paddle steamboat, JAMES BURT.
After unloading Benjamin's wagon containing kegs of gold coin and Mexican silver dollars onto the James Burt, the slipped past Union occupied Palatka on the St Johns River with intelligence given by Confederate spy, Lola Sanchez.
Hart took them down the Ocklawaha River to Silver Springs and Ocala, where they stayed for two weeks, Wood and Breckinridge at the home of CSA Brig General Robert Bullock, Benjamin at his cousins Benjamin's home along with his cousin David Levy Yulee's wife and son.
Benjamin, with the aid of the CSA "cow cavalry" made it the Gamble Plantation in Ellenton of the Gulf, and sailed with a blockade runner to the Bahamas.
Wood and Breckinridge were given the USS COLUMBINE's longboat , captured by CSA Capt JJ Dickson, which is the only time a cavalry captured and sank two naval vessels.
They navigated up the St Johns, the "cow cavalry" helped portage to the intercoastal, down to Ft Dallas (Miami) where they hijacked a Cuban fishing boat, sailed to Cuba, where they stayed with Lola Sanchez's relatives, before getting passage to England.
*NOTE* Jefferson Davis' baggage and portion of the Confederate treasury was transported to Florida in a sturdily built ambulance and two heavy wagons by CSA Capt Watson Van Benthuysen, and his brothers WS and JD, who were Davis' brother in laws and five others.
Jefferson Davis' baggage and $35,000 in gold coin was captured by the Union at Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation, May,1865. Before Nannie Yulee and 15 yo son C Wickliffe Yulee went to Ocala, C Wickliffe and CSA Lt John S Purviance buried two of Davis' trunks, which have never been recovered.
*NOTE* Zachery Taylor was the commandant of FORT KING during the 2nd Seminole War , which recently been rebuilt on the original site.
*NOTE* Robert H Gamble of Gamble Plantation was married to Breckinridge's sister, Letitia.
*NOTE* CSA CAPT JAMES McKay of the Florida "cow cavalry" who coordinated cattle shipments to Cuba for payment in gold, daughter, Almeria Belle married Howard Tyson Lykes, who had a steamship company and large cattle ranches in Florida and Texas, which became LYKES MEAT Co, known for their hotdogs and lunchmeat.
