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48	UCHAKVT
T-*nvc Baton
at Bayou Sara, just me, llicy „-c,c all =crioUS^ir ‘i, died and al one lime Zach. y ,( -JcSTcry UI l.U
materialize, but Mrs.	yf-
further weakened
-----r had almost
Taylor in Deccmbei , I1,1U
thinking of settling in tlie eef|
when lie "quit the army i*- wa^
gave
would return to Kentucky.
Taylor frequently talked of quit lisliing himself as a plantei. lie d plantation but lie was never atjl life. In spite of its privations andl lion for him and he remained wji Lite in Mardi, Taylor took CO of tlic Eighth Regiment, mainlyj di.sciplinc and organization, who the military road, or Jackson Ro* ran northeast from Madisonvilje for some two hundred miles to Go another road that led to Florence
i T
nessec River and 011 to Na.shvil load had been completed, and just on tlie edge of the territory through which the remainder of Everything was in great confusiti a standstill. 1 he troops, accordin rations of bread and in a state ofj<
Rouge. Dur The two y up all his worst ■glicate con: !^This expe: deterred hii South and h more than n he “quit
:ing the arm id eventually to forsake ardships, it 1 :h it. ii imand of ab recent recrui
ing (omitry ofltrrd nothing e*c quality. Moreover, the quarterrtr and the.reclit of thc government had to come from Nfo* -	’
anti then neai'TvTnu
-w Orleans
luindi cd m;
1 8. fieccmbc
Qjxl. 10 ,
September Q’	C'W
d • ~Tt>
Jf i ■- fi' C ■	.	-	rf
ng the sum-oungest girls hope for the fears did not stitution was
likely
nence, wrote *i from even added that that he he army”— y and estab-acquirc the the military ad a fascina-
were engaged d as it was on Lake P ilumbus. Th , Alabama, About 120 'aylor founc of the Choc he road had and work to Taylor, :arvation. Tl i ept beef of rster was wi was nearly go y way of the the roa
. I js-up tl
1820, it)id.
)ut 460 men s lacking in in building called, which mtchartrain :re it joined, jn the Ten-miles of the the troops taw Nation to be built, riractically at ^vere on halE e surround-the poorest thout funds ne. Supplies^ Pearl River cT they wefe
,!n
, ^ —	'	Jilc	1
( •„
7S
FRONTIER DUTY	49
building. Taylor’s first task was to get provisions for his men which he did as rapidly as possible.34 He also found that because it was a busy time of year on the plantations the cost of hiring horses, oxen, and wagons to haul their provisions was exceedingly high. Moreover, the muddy condition of the road compelled the wragons to carry light loads, thus adding to the cost of transportation. So enormous did Taylor consider the expense of provisioning the army that he determined upon the utmost speed in finishing the road.85 “With great exertions on the part of every officer, and after submitting to every privation that it was possible for men to undergo,” to quote Taylor, he finished	j fr
11 ic roa cljby_the_m i d d 1 e of (liine.3j? The estimated total cost of the completed project was $300,000, a large sum for road construction in that day. As it provided a route from New Orleans to Nashville some two hundred miles shorter than the old one through Natchez, it was, in spite of the cost, a worth-while enterprise.37
Upon the completion of the road, Taylor withdrew thc troops to Bay St. Louis on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi which remained hisjxeadquarters for over a year. Here he was joined late iCjTjt820 by Mrs. Taylor and the girls, all of them much improV^a in health now that the summer weather was past, but still feeling the effects of their illness.
Here Taylor spent his time supervising the construction of quarters, drilling his troops, most of whom had spent all of their enlisted time on road work and were ignorant of drill regulations, and in thc routine administrative duties of his regiment.38 Little progress had been made in drill practice when two companies were ordered to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to aid in the erection of barracks. This
34 Id. to id., April 20, 1820, ibid.
85 Ibid.
as Id. to id., September (1^8, \%2a,Jbi<l.	............
37 William A. Love, ‘'G?*Tf?rfaTjack son's Military Road,” in Mississippi Historical Society Publications (University), XI (1910), 409-10. as Ibid.; Taylor to Jesup, December 15, 1820, in Taylor Papers.
r-.