Insofar as it was able, Zachary Taylor was a household name before he became the twelfth President of the United States of America. He was a war hero and people knew it. As a Major General by the time of his ascension to the presidency. He has enlisted in the United States Army in 1808 and saw combat in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Seminole Wars, and most consequently for Taylor and the United States, the Mexican American War.

President Taylor regularly and religiously attended Episcopal parishes as he was married to an Episcopal communicant, Margaret Smith Taylor. That said he was never confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church which is a sign of membership in that denomination.