When the American Revolution began, Taylor became a 2nd lieutenant in the Virginia Continental forces on February 12, 1775, and fought in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth.

In the Fall of 1777 Thomas Shoemaker's Gwynedd township house was first plundered by Washington's army, then occupied by Taylor and other officers who kept the foragers away.

They had the prime offender arrested on 24 October 1777, and made him run the gauntlet after which the families in the neighborhood were no longer bothered.

and Welsh Rd, just outside Lansdale Pa. (currently owned by Tom and Wendy Tracy)[citation needed] During the Northwest Indian War, Taylor served as a volunteer in the Kentucky militia under Major John Adair.

He was injured in a disastrous 1792 battle with Indians under Little Turtle near Fort St. Clair, site of the present Eaton, Ohio.

Beginning in June, 1792, following the constitutional convention that made Kentucky a state, Col. Taylor built his first brick home on acreage east of Louisville purchased from Isaac Shelby.