"Thomas Fox Taylor attended the mission schools in his nation and the Nashville and Knoxville colleges of Tennessee. He became well known as a politician in the Cherokee Nation even as a young man, and was especially noted as an orator, fluent in both the English and the Cherokee. His first public office was that of clerk and interpreter of the Cherokee Council. Later when elected member of the Cherokee National Committee from Going Snake District, he was also elected president of the Committee. In the organization of Colonel Stand Watie's Cherokee Mounted Rifle Regiment, near Fort Wayne on July 12, 1861, for the Confederate service, Thomas Fox Taylor was elected lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Colonel Taylor and several of his command were killed in a skirmish between Confederate and Federal troops on Bayou Menard the morning of July 27, 1862."
It would have had to have happened before July 27, 1862.
[Chronicles of Oklahoma
Volume 12, No. 2
June, 1934
THE JOURNAL OF JOHN LOWERY BROWN, OF THE CHEROKEE NATION EN ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA IN 1850
Transcribed from the Original and annotated
By Muriel H. Wright ]
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v012/v012p177.html
The following data is extracted from The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men.
The subject of this sketch was born in East Tennessee, in 1818, the eldest son of Richard Taylor, half Cherokee. His mother was a Miss McDaniel, a white lady. Thomas Fox was educated at the missionary schools of Tennessee, and at the Nashville and Knoxville colleges. At an early age he became a prominent politician, being endowed with a rare fluency of speech both in English and Cherokee. His first offices were those of clerk of the house and interpreter, after which he was elected to the house as a representative, and afterwards to the senate, unfortunately, however, he was killed in a skirmish near Fort Gibson during the civil war. He was lieutenant colonel of Stand Watie's brigade when he was killed. Thomas Fox Taylor was not only a natural orator, but a brilliant wit, and the center of attraction wherever he went. He was a dashing officer, and invariably the leader when any adventure or enterprise was to be undertaken. Thomas Fox Taylor's name will be long remembered and revered among his people.