James Marvin Young

He Carried a Wounded Comrade Through Enemy Fire

James Marvin Young was born on December 2, 1843, in Ellicott, Chautauqua County, New York. During the American Civil War, he served in the United States Army as a private in Company B of the 72nd New York Infantry, a regiment associated with the famed Excelsior Brigade. His military service placed him in some of the most demanding campaigning undertaken by the Army of the Potomac, but one act during the Battle of the Wilderness would ultimately earn him the Medal of Honor.

The 72nd New York Infantry served in the Eastern Theater, where Union and Confederate armies fought repeatedly across Virginia. By 1864, the regiment was participating in Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, an aggressive series of operations intended to keep constant pressure on General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

The campaign opened in the dense woodland of central Virginia known as the Wilderness.

On May 5 and 6, 1864, the Battle of the Wilderness erupted across thick forests, tangled undergrowth, narrow roads, and small clearings. The terrain made command and movement extremely difficult. Smoke from musketry and burning woods reduced visibility, while opposing units often encountered each other at very short range.

Private James Marvin Young was serving with the 72nd New York Infantry during this chaotic fighting.

On May 6, Young went forward with companions beyond the main Union position to reconnoiter the enemy.

Moving ahead of friendly lines was exceptionally dangerous. Soldiers performing reconnaissance could suddenly encounter Confederate skirmishers or come under fire without the protection of their own regiment.

During the mission, enemy fire struck one of Young’s companions and left the soldier unable to return to safety on his own.

Young could have withdrawn.

Instead, he went to the wounded man.

Under continuing enemy fire, Young lifted his disabled companion onto his back and began carrying him toward the Union lines.

The burden made movement slower and more difficult, while the exposed ground placed both men at continued risk. Young nevertheless continued until he successfully carried the wounded soldier back inside the Union position.

His official Medal of Honor citation preserved the essential facts of the action: Young had gone in front of the line with companions, and when one of them was disabled by enemy fire, he carried the wounded soldier to safety upon his back.

The rescue took place during one of the most violent battles of the Overland Campaign.

The Battle of the Wilderness produced enormous casualties on both sides and ended without a clear tactical victory. Grant, however, made a decision that distinguished the campaign from many previous Union operations. Instead of withdrawing after the battle, the Army of the Potomac continued south toward Spotsylvania Court House, maintaining pressure on Lee’s army.

Young remained part of a regiment that had already endured years of hard campaigning by the time of the Wilderness.

His own Medal of Honor action was not an attack on an enemy position or the capture of a battle flag. It was an act of battlefield rescue—choosing to return for a wounded comrade while exposed to hostile fire.

More than three decades passed before the United States formally recognized that act.

On April 2, 1898, James Marvin Young received the Medal of Honor for his conduct during the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864.

The long interval between the action and the award was not unusual among Civil War recipients. Many soldiers were recognized years or even decades after the war as military reports, eyewitness testimony, and recommendations were reviewed.

For Young, the Medal of Honor ensured that the moment in which he carried a wounded soldier through enemy fire would become a permanent part of the official record of American military valor.

His broader Civil War service is also represented by the Army Civil War Campaign Medal.

The Civil War Campaign Medal was established by the War Department in 1907 to recognize qualifying service in the United States Army during the American Civil War. The year 1907 refers to the establishment of the decoration rather than to the year of Young’s wartime action.

While the Medal of Honor recognized one specific act of extraordinary courage at the Wilderness, the Army Civil War Campaign Medal represents his wider qualifying service as a Union soldier during the conflict.

No devices are associated with either decoration in his record.

Young survived the Civil War and lived for nearly half a century after the fighting ended. During those decades, the men who had fought in the conflict became increasingly involved in veterans’ organizations, reunions, battlefield commemorations, and efforts to preserve the history of their regiments.

For Medal of Honor recipients such as Young, the official recognition of wartime actions also ensured that individual stories of courage were preserved alongside the larger histories of battles and campaigns.

James Marvin Young died in 1913.

His military legacy remains centered on the terrible fighting of May 6, 1864.

In the tangled forests of the Wilderness, Young went beyond the safety of the Union line on a dangerous reconnaissance mission. When enemy fire disabled one of his companions, he chose not to leave the wounded soldier behind.

He lifted the man onto his back and carried him through enemy fire to safety.

For that courageous act, James Marvin Young received the Medal of Honor.

Together with the Army Civil War Campaign Medal recognizing his broader Union Army service, his decorations preserve the story of a private soldier whose defining act of courage was saving the life of a fellow serviceman in the middle of one of the Civil War’s fiercest battles.