Taylor did not have any military experience until the Civil War broke out. However, most of Taylor's contemporaries, subordinates, and superiors spoke many times of his military prowess as he proved himself capable both in the field and in departmental command. Nathan Bedford Forrest commented about Taylor, "He's the biggest man in the lot. If we'd had more like him, we would have licked the Yankees long ago." Charles Erasmus Fenner, an officer in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department and post-war Louisiana Supreme Court justice, asserted that, "Dick Taylor was a born soldier. Probably no civilian of his time was more deeply versed in the annals of war, including the achievements and personal characteristics of all the great captains, the details and philosophies of their campaigns, and their strategic theories and practice."