Excerpt from The Life of Gen. Zachary Taylor<br><br>But little is known of the General's youth, but all accounts agree in describing it as one of rare promise for a military man. He showed a predilection for the exercises and accomplishments of the sol dier, and as an instance of his bravery and hardihood it is related that when about seventeen years of age he swam from the Kentucky shore across the Ohio river to the Indiana side and back again without rest ing, in company with an elder brother, long since dead. The feat was performed in the month of March, when the river was swollen and chill, and far surpasses the famous one of swimming the Hellespont, which is about a mile across, and of de lightful temperature.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.