His older brother, Paul Taussig, had been enrolled at the USNA but died the previous July of a sudden onset of acute appendicitis.

In the daily 125 page journal (with an additional 35 pages of imprints) that Taussig maintained of his experiences and observations during the Spanish–American War, he wrote about the troops embarkation from Tampa, Florida, the Army landing at Daiquirí and Siboney, the condition of the Cuban and Spanish armies, the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, a visit to Morro Castle in Havana Harbor and the fleet's triumphal and feted return to New York Navy Yard after the end of hostilities in August 1898.

Taussig's journal includes his pencil sketches of troops, ships, locations, maps, and prints of naval personnel involved in the war.

Departing from the West Coast, Newark made stops in Hawaii and Guam in transit to the Western Pacific and arrived in Cavite in November 1899.

During that time, Taussig was part of a landing party that embarked at Pamplona to rescue American citizens being held hostage by Insurrectos opposed to U.S. control of the Philippines.

As a naval cadet member of the multinational landing force that came to be known as the Seymour Relief Expedition Taussig served alongside and began a long and fraternal professional association with Royal Navy officers Captain John Jellicoe and Lieutenant David Beatty who later advanced to First Sea Lords of the Royal Navy.

On June 7, 1900, the 2,100 strong Seymour Relief Expedition set out from Tientsin by train with the destination Peking and the objective the release of the besieged foreign legations.

As he had done during the Spanish–American War, Taussig maintained a daily journal of the time he was in the Philippines and subsequently China while attached to Newark as a naval cadet.

These include detailed descriptions of his shipmates and officers including Captain Bowman H. McCalla of the Newark, Vice Admiral Seymour, the progress and setback of the Seymour Expedition, the political dynamics, social customs and recreation in China, and drawings of engineering details of Newark and urban scenes in Vigan and Pamplona.

Of tactical significance, the journal includes a list of the ports of call for Newark and an intelligence report on the fortifications of Sydney, Australia and the government of New South Wales.

Taussig submitted his journal to Captain John Fremont of the Culgoa who attested to it and pronounced it an excellent piece of work.

After two years as a naval cadet, and having participated in three separate conflicts initiated by native interests opposing foreign intervention by the age of twenty-three, Taussig was commissioned ensign on 28 January 1901 to begin a series of promotions and distinctions that would underscore his service to the navy.

In 1907, Taussig joined the officer staff of Kansas, one of the ships of the Great White Fleet that circumnavigated the globe in 1907 as a demonstration of U.S.

This duty gave Taussig the background experience which resulted in his exposing personnel shortcomings in the navy following World War I.

At that time, Britain was suffering from unchecked U-boat attacks on merchant shipping in the North Atlantic, so in May 1917 President Woodrow Wilson ordered DesDiv 8 to Queenstown, Ireland, to assist the British Royal Navy - the first group of American destroyers sent abroad during the war.

The British commander at Queenstown, Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, hosted a dinner in the Americans' honor on the night of their arrival.

In 1921 he was assigned to command Great Northern, later renamed Columbia, briefly flagship of the United States Atlantic Fleet.

In May 1938, he was attached as commandant, Norfolk Navy Yard and Fifth Naval District, a billet his father Edward D. Taussig had filled thirty years earlier.

Taussig advocated the building of Iowa-class and Montana-class battleships and offered testimony to the aggressive, imperialistic designs of the Empire of Japan that planned to annex China, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies.

Rear Admiral Taussig was forced to retire in September 1941 due to his age, despite his petition to continue on active duty with the impending international crisis.

According to a May 9, 1940 article by Drew Pearson, Taussig was forced into retirement due to his public prediction that war with Japan was inevitable.

In a June 9, 1940 article authored by Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, Taussig was referred to as "the star scholar and strategist of the navy."