Elijah Dixon Taft

He was a successful carpenter in Brooklyn, NY by 1850 and had experience in the NY State Militia from about 1841, probably becoming a Captain in the 60th Regiment by 1857. He had run for State office in 1855. He was the original commander of the Exelsior Battery on its organization in November 1861, his commission as their Captain effective 10 October 1861.

He commanded his battery on the Maryland Campaign.

He led the battery through the War, including at Gettysburg in 1863, and was still in command when they mustered out of service on 6 July 1865. He was honored by brevet to Major of Volunteers on 13 March 1865.

By 1870 he was again a carpenter in Brooklyn, and was listed as a ship joiner there in 1880. In 1900 he was retired and living alone, a boarder with the Glen family in Brooklyn. In 1905 he was living with housekeeper Minnie Bode in Brooklyn, but by 1910 he and she were living in St. Cloud, Osceola County, FL. He died at age 95 at his grandson Edgar G. Taft's place at Freeport, Long Island in 1915.

His Federal service information from Phisterer.1 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1850-1910, the NY State Census of 1905, and his obituary in the New York Times of 2 March 1915. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary Ann Rosella Turcort Van Nostrand (1821-1867) in December 1838 and they had 7 children. He married again, the widow Lucinda E Patterson Bell (1816-1900) in November 1869.

See some further details about Taft in a blog post on behindAotW.

04/28/1819; Mamaroneck, NY

03/01/1915; Freeport, NY; burial in The Evergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY