Mr. Taylor was known to be a Union man, and therefore could not be permitted to dwell peacefully at home with his wife and children. He was arrested and tried by a drum-head court-martial as an accomplice in the bridge-burnings of 1862, but was acquitted. Afterwards, being threatened with arrest and imprisonment upon the charge of High Treason against the Confederacy--to end, perhaps, in his death--he sought refuge in secluded and very inaccessible gorges of the mountains. His concealment there was attended with privations, but it disconcerted enemies in their pursuit. Upon learning of Burnside’s advent into East Tennessee, he became perplexed in mind as to his personal duty. He could not remain in his hiding place without danger of being discovered and hunted from it, if not seized. The Confederate troops were between him and Burnside at Knoxville, and he could reach there only with difficulty and risk. If he attempted to do so and succeeded, in what way under the protection of friendly power, could he best serve his country? He almost determined to seek for a suitable position in the United States army, but postponing a conclusion, he submitted the subject to God in prayer. Upon doing this, he was persuaded that his petition for guidance and direction was answered by the strong impression of a new idea upon his mind. For some time he had been deeply moved at heart, in his daily and nightly reflections, by a vision which the unhappy condition of East Tennessee suggested; a vision of famine and death swiftly coming upon its people. Prayer in faith had been the means of opening his eyes as to what he should do in relation to those impending evils. He thought that the Spirit of the Lord spoke to his own spirit: “Your duty is to go and tell the people of the North, of this great, threatening destitution, that they may interpose with their beneficence between it and the suffering people of East Tennessee.” He accepted the conclusion as from Him who inspires those who trust in Him to all good and praiseworthy undertakings. Escaping at once through the Confederate lines to Knoxville, he proceeded from thence to Cincinnati upon his humane and patriotic mission. There he met with sympathizing friends of his enterprise, to promote which several hundred dollars were contributed by citizens, after a public meeting had been held and an address heard from him. The amount would have been larger, had there not been already a stream of needy refugees from the seceded States to Cincinnati and other points on the Ohio River, which two months later grew into “great numbers.” To provide for that out-flow of “thousands of women, children and aged men--all meanly clad, well-nigh starved, and many well-nigh heart-broken,” the Refugee Relief Commission was established at Cincinnati.