Faces of the 12th Virginia Infantry("Petersburg Regiment") : Fielding Lewis Taylor, Mortally Wounded at Crampton's Gap

Caption:  Fielding Lewis Taylor

Credit:  Creative Commons, “Fielding Lewis Taylor,” findagrave.com, May 25, 2017

Norfolk-born Fielding Lewis Taylor, who resided in Gloucester County and had attended Washington College, became the 12th Virginia's first Lieutenant Colonel on July 1, 1861.  He was reelected to his position May 1, 1862.  At the battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks June 1, 1862, he took the colors away from a color bearer he thought had hesitated under fire.  Moments later, he defended the regiment against Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill's charge that the 12th had run.  Despite illness, he fought at Second Manassas/Second Bull Run on August 30, 1862.  Still too ill to take charge of the regiment at Crampton's Gap on September 14, 1862, Taylor accompanied the regiment bearing a gold-headed cane.  Taylor fell mortally wounded.  Private John E. Crow of the regiment's Company E, the Petersburg Riflemen, saved Taylor's cane by sticking it into the barrel of his fouled rifle.