Richard Taylor was born in 1826 at Springfield, his family's plantation near Louisville, Kentucky, to Zachary Taylor, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army at the time, and Margaret Mackall (Smith) Taylor. He was named after his paternal grandfather, Richard Lee Taylor, a Virginian who had served in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Richard Taylor, nicknamed "Dick", had five older sisters, two of whom died in childhood before he was born. Three lived to adulthood: Ann Mackall Taylor, Sarah Knox Taylor, and Mary Elizabeth Taylor. The children spent much of their early lives on the American frontier, as their father was a career military officer and commanded frontier forts. All the family lived with him at these posts. As a youth, Richard was sent to private schools in Kentucky and Massachusetts.