Taliaferro was from Gloucester, Virginia, and was born in 1822. He graduated from the College of William and Mary and studied law at Harvard. He served as colonel of the 23rd Virginia under General R.S. Garnett in Western Virginia. Under Stonewall Jackson he was promoted to brigadier general. Taliaferro was severely wounded at Groveton (Second Manassas). He served the rest of the war in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He died in 1898 and is buried at Ware Church in Gloucester, Virginia.

Source: "Generals in Gray" Warner, Ezra J.