While training recruits, Taylor received news that he was commissioned as a colonel of the 9th Louisiana Infantry. The members of the 9th Louisiana voted for Taylor because they thought that with Taylor's connections to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was widower of his late sister Sarah, the unit would be sent out sooner and see battle more quickly. On July 20, he arrived in Richmond with his regiment and received orders from LeRoy Pope Walker, Confederate States Secretary of War, to board the train and move to Manassas to take part in the First Battle of Manassas; the 9th Louisiana arrived at Manassas Junction hours after the battle was won by the Confederacy.