Stuart Mollan Taylor was born around 1838 in New York to Isaac Taylor and Eliza Mollan. His father was a physician who served as president of Bellevue Hospital. Taylor grew up and attended school in New York City, New York, and by the early 1860s, he was studying law. He enlisted in the Union army on August 1, 1861, and he mustered in later that month as a paymaster in the 55^th New York Infantry. He apparently never served in the regiment, as his service record indicates that his “name appears on muster in roll only.”

 

On December 23, 1862, he received a commission as captain and assistant adjutant general in the army’s Adjutant General’s Department. He was wounded in July 1864, and he received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in March 1865. He mustered out on October 31, 1865.

 

Taylor returned to New York after the war, and by 1870, he was working as a broker. He married Gertrude Judge around 1870, and their daughter Emily was born on May 5, 1883. He joined the Democratic Party and supported presidential candidate Samuel Tilden in the election of 1876. He eventually moved to San Francisco, California, and he served as Naval Officer there during President Grover Cleveland’s first administration. The family eventually moved to Paris, France, and Taylor died there of pneumonia on October 7, 1895.

SOURCES