Bennett H. Young

Bennett Henderson Young (May 25, 1843 – February 23, 1919) was a commanding officer, lawyer, administrator, and author. As a Confederate officer during the American Civil War he led forces in the St. Albans Raid (October 19, 1864). After the war, he worked as a lawyer and author.

Early life

Young was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky, on May 25, 1843, to Robert Young and Josephine Henderson. He was 17 years old when he enlisted as a private in the Confederate 8th Kentucky Cavalry. This unit became a part of John Hunt Morgan's cavalry command.

St. Albans raid

Young was captured in Morgan's Raid but fled to Canada in the fall of 1863. Young traveled back to the Confederacy via Nova Scotia and Bermuda, where he proposed Canada-based raids on the United States 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 Canada–US border.

Young and two others checked into a local hotel on October 10, saying 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 St. Albans. They announced that they were Confederate soldiers and stole a total of $208,000 ($4,282,000 in current dollar terms). 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. The Confederates killed one townsperson and wounded another. 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.