Peter A. Taylor

In 1855 he was living with his American born siblings and parents in Volney, Oswego County, NY. On 1 August 1861 he enrolled in Buffalo at age 25 in Company D of the 49th New York Infantry, one of 60 Canadians in the regiment. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 21 October 1861 and was detached for signal duty in March 1862. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 31 May 1862. He was with General Pope, Army of Virginia in August 1862, and was at Cedar Mountain.

He was part of the Army of the Potomac Signal Detachment on the Maryland Campaign and was at the Army Headquarters signal station during the battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was discharged from the 49th Infantry on 6 September 1863 and appointed Captain, US Signal Corps, in August 1864 (to date from May 1863). He was attached to the 11th Corps and manned a signal station on Little Round Top at Gettysburg before it was occupied by Federal Infantry, and was assigned to General Hancock in Autumn 1864. In January 1865 he was selected Chief Signal Officer of the Department of Tennessee, was honored by brevet to Major on 13 March 1865, and mustered out of service on 4 September 1865.

His service from Brown1, source also of his picture, and the Adjutant General.2 Details from the New York State Census of 1855.

He's featured in a painting by Don Stivers called Signals at Little Round Top. It depicts Captain Taylor, Captain James T. Hall, Sergeant John Chemberlin, and Sergeant Lucian H. Goodnaugh.

c. 1836 in CANADA