Editing Taylor County, Florida (section)

==History==
Taylor County was created on December 23, 1856, from [[Madison County, Florida|Madison County]] on the same day as [[Lafayette County, Florida|Lafayette County]] was also split off from Madison County. It was named for [[Zachary Taylor]], twelfth president of the United States, who served from 1849 to 1850. Taylor won most counties in northern Florida during the election of 1848 and was largely responsible for the ultimate U.S. victory in the Second Seminole War.<ref>{{cite book|title=Publications of the Florida Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZQ-AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA34|year=1908|publisher=Florida Historical Society|page=34}}</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], Taylor County was home to William Strickland and his band of deserters and Unionists called "The Royal Rangers" or the "Independent Rangers".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cash |first1=W.T. |title=Taylor County History and Civil War Deserters |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=July 1948 |volume=27 |issue=1 |page=50 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22328 |access-date=August 15, 2023}}</ref> In 1864, a Confederate colonel tasked with hunting down deserters, broke into Strickland's home and found a membership list of 35 men who "bear true allegiance to the United States of America." Despite their names being identified and homes burned to the ground, few members of the Rangers surrendered.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beals |first1=Carleton |title=War Within a War; the Confederacy Against Itself |date=1965 |publisher=Chilton Books |location=Philadelphia, PA |pages=69–70 |edition=1st}}</ref>