Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, Va.),
Fri, 6 Sep 1867, p2, c3

Died,

At Belleville, Gloucester county, Virginia, the residence of his father, on Sunday morning, September 1st, EDWIN TALIAFERRO, Professor of Languages in William and Mary College, and late Major in the Ordinance Department, Confederate States army, aged thirty-two.
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The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.),
Tue, 17 Sep 1867, p2, c1

In Memorium.
The late Edward Taliaferro

We have already made the melancholy announcement of the death of Edward Taliaferro, Esq., late Professor of Modern languages in William and Mary College, which occurred at Belleville, the seat of his father, in the county of Gloucester, on the 2d inst.

It is with inexpressible pain that we recur to this subject, but it is due alike to the memory of the deceased, and the fame of Virginia, that a more extended notice of this sad event should be made than has yet appeared in those columns.

Professor Talia ferro was thirty-three years of age at the date of his death, and from his boyhood up had been remarkable for the serenity of his temper and his meditative turn of mind.

He was graduated at an early age, with distinction, at the University of Virginia, as Master of Arts, having taken his degree in two years, after which he immediately went abroad to prosecute his studies and inform his tastes.

At Trinity College, Dublin, he spent two years, and then visited Continental Europe. Here he devoted himself with the enthusiasm of a true poet, and an earnest scholar, to the study of the Romance language and literature. His patience was equal to his enthusiasm, and less than two months ago, it was the fortune of the present writer to examine in company with the dead scholar, two MS, volumes of his translations, rich in selections, from the poetry of ancient and modern Europe.

Thus fitted by high birth, serene temper, easy fortune and large requirements for the duties of life, Professor Taliaferro returned to Virginia, and was immediately thereafter elected Professor of Modern Languages in William and Mary, and this chair he filled at the breaking out of the late war.

In obedience to his conviction of duty, he immediately enlisted, and was soon promoted Lieutenant, and appointed Adjutant of the 32nd regiment of Virginia infantry.

On the death of the lamented Morrison, also a Professor at the same college, he was again advanced a grade, and assigned to duty as Chief of Ordinance to General Magruder, in which position his energy and fine abilities made him a thoroughly efficient officer.

On the evacuation of the Peninsula, he was assigned to the division of McLaws, and remained in duty with this command until after the battle of Chancellorsville, when he was ordered to the Arsonal at Macon, Georgia. The chivalrous nature of the man is shown by the fact that wherever his command was ordered into action, Captain Taliaferro left his train in charge of a subaltern and reported for duty on the personal staff of the General of division.

He remained at Macon until the famous raid of Stoneman, when in command of the field artillery, he greatly distinguished himself, and here it was that he received the injury from which he never recovered.

In speaking of his military career, all who knew him, or saw his conspicuous bravery at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville of Gettysburg, will accord him the praise of having been a gallant soldier, and it was in obedience to the same sentiments which carried him to the front when the fire was hottest, that in the last moments of his life, he requested his friends bury him in the grey uniform which had been so long associated in his mind with his highest conceptions of duty.

It was for far different scenes, however, that nature had designed for him. He was born for the tranquil pursuits of the scholar; but when the hour came for him to turn away from his books, we find that the very spirit of which the old trouveres breathe in their wild Chasons, had infused itself into his nature.

Not in vain had he read that epic lay, La chason de Roland - from which the jongleur Tallifer chanted warlike snatches as he rode forth to meet his death at Hastings.

Not in vain had he studied the Romance and dreamed under the blue sky of Provence, while he translated the martial songs of Bertrand de Born. The studies of the scholar gave an antique and noble cast to the creer of the soldier. It could not have been otherwise, for he himself was a poet, and had he lived, his claims to this distinction, always too much obscured by his own modesty, would have been universally known and acknowledged.

But there were other studies of his which threw a serene light upon his noble character. He was a diligent student of the Bible, and for many years combined faith with works in the most beautiful and unostentatious harmony.

It is no wonder then that one of the most distinguished men of the State, in speaking of his death, should write to us as follows:

"His death is a loss to the country, to literature, to science. In him is extinguished one of the noblest spirits, pure, chivalrous, lofty, worthy of the best ages! I would that all the young men of Virginia might know how nobly, how truly, how spotlessly he lived, and what noble gifts he had used and kept so nobly."

Nor was his appreciation confined to Virginia. After his death an unsought offer of the Chair of Languages in the University of Georgia was received by his family, expressed in terms which might have gratified the pride of any man.

Then, oh reader as we pay this tribute to our dead friend, think it not the language of vulgar exaggeration, nor yet of a blind love, when we say that Edward Taliaferro was like Bayard and Sidney, in the lofty graces of his character, and the beautiful purity of his life.