Bennett H. Young
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Bennett H. Young (1843-1919) was a Confederate officer who led forces in the St Albans raid (October 19, 1864), a military action during the American Civil War. As a lieutenant of the Confederate Army, he entered Vermont from Canada and occupied the town of St. Albans.
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[edit] Early life
Young was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky. He was 18 years old when he enlisted as a private in the Confederate 8th Kentucky Cavalry, a unit that became a part of General John Hunt Morgan's cavalry command.
[edit] The St. Albans Raid
Young had been captured in John Hunt Morgan's 1863 raid in Ohio, but escaped to Canada in the fall of that year. Morgan went to the south, where he proposed Canada-based raids on the Union as a means of building the Confederate treasury and forcing the Union army to protect their northern border as a diversion. Young was commissioned as a lieutenant and returned to Canada, where he recruited other escaped rebels to participate in the October 19, 1864 raid on St. Albans, Vermont, a quiet town 15 miles (25 km) from the Canadian border.
Young and two others checked into a local hotel on October 10, saying that they had come from St. John's in Canada for a "sporting vacation." Every day, two or three more young men arrived. By October 19, there were 21 cavalrymen assembled; just before 3:00 p.m. the group simultaneously staged an armed robbery of the three banks in the town. They announced that they were Confederate soldiers and stole a total of $208,000. As the banks were being robbed, eight or nine of the Confederates held the townspeople prisoner on the village green as their horses were stolen. One townsperson was killed and another wounded. Young ordered his troops to burn the town down, but the four-ounce bottles of Greek fire they had brought failed to work, and only one shed was destroyed.
The raiders fled with the money into Canada, where they were arrested by authorities. A court decided that the soldiers were under military orders and that the officially neutral Canada could not extradite them to America. They were freed, but the $88,000 the raiders had on them was returned to Vermont.
[edit] Later Career
After the end of the Civil War, Young was excluded from President Andrew Johnson's amnesty proclamation. He could not return home until 1868.
Thus, he spent time studying law and literature at the University of Ireland and the University of Edinburgh. After being permitted to return to the United States, he became a prominent attorney in Louisville, Kentucky. He also worked as a railroad officer, author, and National Commander of the United Confederate Veterans.[1]
Young later visited in Montreal in 1911. A group of dignitaries from St. Albans called on him at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.[2]
