From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (PIONEERS & PATRIOTS: Anderson County Military Servicemen, Revolutionary War - WWI)

Allen Taylor was born a slave in Anderson County about 1821. He remained a slave into adulthood; President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in states openly hostile toward the Union. Late in the war, however, the government called for the enlistment of colored regiments, and all who answered the call were granted immediate freedom.

Taylor therefore made his way to Lexington to enlist and on August  27, 1864 was enrolled as a private in Company K of the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry Regiment. At that time he testified that he was born in Anderson County, KY about 1821.

Throughout the spring and early summer of 1865 the regiment saw duty at various posts in central Kentucky until August 1865, when it was transferred to Department of Arkansas. The regiment was engaged in that state against renegade groups until March  1866, then mustered out of the service at Helena, Arkansas on March 20, 1866.