Benjamin F. Young

Benjamin F. Young was a Union Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient who distinguished himself during the opening fighting around Petersburg, Virginia, on 17 June 1864. Serving as a Corporal in the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters, Young captured the battle flag of the 35th North Carolina Infantry, Confederate States Army, an act for which he received the Medal of Honor later that same year.

His surviving official record is brief, but it preserves the essential facts of a soldier whose courage placed him among the decorated veterans of the American Civil War.

Early Life

Benjamin F. Young was born in Canada in 1841.

The principal authoritative Medal of Honor record identifies him as Benjamin F. Young. Although later secondary sources sometimes expand the middle initial, reliable official evidence does not establish the full middle name with sufficient certainty. For that reason, his name should remain Benjamin F. Young.

His Medal of Honor record was later accredited to Detroit, Michigan. That should be treated only as an award-credit association and not automatically interpreted as his exact birthplace, enlistment location, or permanent residence.

By the Civil War, Young had entered the United States Army and was serving in the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters.

The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters

The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters was an infantry regiment trained and employed for precision fire and skirmishing duties, although its soldiers also fought as conventional infantry when required.

The regiment became part of the Union forces operating in Virginia during some of the hardest fighting of 1864.

By June, the Army of the Potomac and associated Union formations had moved south after the Overland Campaign and reached the strategically vital city of Petersburg.

Petersburg was not important merely as another Virginia town. It was a major transportation and railroad center supplying Richmond and General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

If Petersburg fell, the Confederate position at Richmond would become increasingly difficult to sustain.

The Union therefore began a series of assaults against the city's defensive lines in mid-June 1864.

The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters took part in this fighting.

Petersburg — 17 June 1864

Benjamin Young's defining action occurred on 17 June 1864, during the intense opening battles for Petersburg.

He held the rank of Corporal.

The Union attacks between 15 and 18 June involved repeated attempts to break Confederate defensive positions before Lee could fully reinforce the city.

During this fighting, Young captured the flag of the 35th North Carolina Infantry.

His official Medal of Honor citation is exceptionally concise:

“Capture of flag of 35th North Carolina Infantry (C.S.A.).”

No elaborate official narrative survives in the Medal of Honor record describing every movement Young made immediately before or after the capture.

Therefore, the historical account should not invent details such as an unsupported bayonet charge, hand-to-hand struggle, number of opponents killed, or exact words spoken during the action.

What is certain is that Young personally took possession of an enemy regimental flag during active combat at Petersburg.

Why Capturing a Battle Flag Mattered

During the Civil War, regimental colors had both symbolic and practical importance.

Before modern electronic communications, flags helped soldiers identify and locate their units amid smoke, noise, confusion, and rapidly changing battlefield conditions.

A regiment's colors represented its identity and honor, while also serving as a visible rallying point.

Because of this, color bearers and the soldiers around them were often exposed to intense fire.

Capturing an enemy flag therefore required a soldier to enter an especially dangerous area of the battlefield.

It could also disrupt the opposing formation while giving the capturing unit a powerful symbol of battlefield success.

For Young, the capture of the 35th North Carolina Infantry's flag was judged sufficiently distinguished to merit the nation's highest military decoration.

Medal of Honor

Benjamin F. Young received the Medal of Honor for his action at Petersburg.

His verified award details are:

Name: Benjamin F. Young Branch: United States Army Rank: Corporal Unit: 1st Michigan Sharpshooters Conflict: American Civil War Action: Capture of the flag of the 35th North Carolina Infantry Action Date: 17 June 1864 Action Location: Petersburg, Virginia Presentation Date: 1 December 1864 Posthumous Award: No

The distinction between the action date and presentation date is important.

Young performed the act on 17 June 1864, but the Medal of Honor was formally presented on 1 December 1864.

History of Young's Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor itself was still a very new decoration when Young earned it.

Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor on 12 July 1862, during the Civil War. The original legislation allowed the President to recognize noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers who distinguished themselves through gallantry in action and outstanding soldierly qualities.

In March 1863, Congress expanded eligibility to commissioned officers and made the decoration a permanent part of the American military honors system.

Young therefore belonged to the earliest generation of Army Medal of Honor recipients.

The nineteenth-century Army Medal of Honor looked different from the modern version. Its original design used a five-pointed star and imagery including Minerva, representing the United States, surrounded by a band containing 34 stars, reflecting the number of states represented when the design was created.

The modern appearance of the Medal of Honor and its service ribbon evolved later.

For the standardized VictoriaCross.ca rack, Young's entitlement should be represented simply as:

Medal of Honor (U.S. Army) — No device

There is no verified additional star, clasp, oak-leaf cluster, numeral, or other device attached to his award.

The Petersburg Campaign

Young's action came at the beginning of what developed into the long Siege of Petersburg.

The Union Army failed to seize the city outright during the first assaults.

Instead, Petersburg became the center of a prolonged campaign lasting into April 1865.

Union forces gradually extended their lines and attacked the railroads and roads supplying Petersburg and Richmond.

The 1st Michigan Sharpshooters remained associated with the Petersburg fighting and later became particularly noted for its participation in other operations in the campaign.

For Benjamin Young personally, however, the only major engagement and defining mission that can currently be assigned with recipient-specific certainty for this project is his documented 17 June 1864 Medal of Honor action.

That is why his database record appropriately treats Petersburg as his defining battlefield event without inflating his individual battle count from the regiment's wider campaign history.

Later Life

The accessible authoritative Medal of Honor record provides considerably less information about Young's life after the Civil War than it does about his military distinction.

For that reason, uncertain postwar employment, family details, or movements should not be expanded without stronger documentary evidence.

What is securely established is that Young survived the war and lived for more than six decades after the action that earned him the Medal of Honor.

He eventually lived in California.

Benjamin F. Young died on 27 January 1927 in Los Angeles, California.

Burial

Young was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

His verified burial location is recorded as:

Lot 55, Avenue 7, Grave 9

This burial information is preserved in the Medal of Honor recipient record and provides a documented final connection to his later life in California.

Legacy

Benjamin F. Young's Medal of Honor citation consists of only a few words, yet those words preserve an act that carried enormous meaning on a Civil War battlefield.

At Petersburg on 17 June 1864, while serving as a corporal in the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters, he captured the colors of a Confederate infantry regiment.

In an era when military formations depended heavily upon their flags for identity, direction, morale, and cohesion, taking an enemy regimental flag was regarded as an exceptional battlefield achievement.

Young's action occurred during the critical opening struggle for Petersburg, a campaign that would eventually help bring about the collapse of Confederate resistance in Virginia.

Six months after his act of gallantry, on 1 December 1864, the United States formally recognized Benjamin F. Young with the Medal of Honor.

He survived the Civil War, lived into the twentieth century, and died in Los Angeles in 1927.

His name remains preserved among the Civil War recipients of the United States' highest military decoration.

Final Verified Medal Group

Medal of Honor (U.S. Army) — No device

At present, no additional campaign medal, service medal, foreign decoration, or authorized ribbon device has been established with recipient-specific evidence strong enough for inclusion in his final published rack.