He was one of three men received the Medal of Honor for gallantry, Taylor rescuing wounded commander Lieutenant Charles King, while battling the Western Apache near Sunset Pass in Arizona on November 1, 1874.

On November 1, 1874, Taylor left Camp Verde with a small cavalry patrol headed by First Lieutenant Charles King in pursuit of a hostile Apache war party.

After making camp at Sunset Pass, near the Little Colorado River, Taylor and a group of Apache Indian scouts accompanied King to a high vantage point where he could better observe the surrounding area.

[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Near the end of the campaign, two days after being issued the MOH, Taylor died of lung congestion at Camp Verde shortly before his regiment began its homeward march.

[13] His rescue of King was later included as a chapter in Theo F. Rodenbough's Uncle Sam's Medal of Honor (1886), and was depicted on the cover by then well-known military artist Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum.