On October 19, 1864, a group of Confederates under the command of Lt. Bennett Young rolled into St. Albans, Vermont, from Canada. The plan was to rob the population of 4,000 town’s banks, cause chaos, burn buildings, and divert Union troops.
Roughly 20 men, many of whom had escaped Union prisons and made their way to Canada, carefully planned the attack in Quebec and arrived in two in small numbers over a series of days. Young kicked off the attack when he stood on the steps of the American House hotel with a pistol in his hand and shouted, “This city is now in the possession of the Confederate States of America.”
Young, 21, and several raiders started the attack by robbing the First National Bank. They took all the gold and currency they could grab and as they were about to leave, the town’s gold buyer arrived at the bank, not realizing it was being robbed. Young struck a deal with him for the gold to lighten his getaway load.
Nearby, another group led by Lt. William Hutchinson robbed the Franklin County Bank. Hutchinson ordered the clerk and bank president to pledge allegiance to Jefferson Davis and when the clerk balked, Hutchinson pointed his pistol at him, which caused a change of heart. The raiders grabbed all the gold and U.S. currency they could carry.
At the third bank, the First National Bank of St. Albans, the clerk was locked in safe as the men fled. There was chaos in the streets as Confederates where riding back and forth down Main Street. Some townspeople were held at gunpoint on the village green. Panic set in to the raiders and citizenry got over the shock enough to start shooting at the Confederates. Three local men were shot and one later died of his wounds.
The Confederates planned to burn the town as they rode out, but most of the incendiaries failed to ignite and only a shed was destroyed. They managed to burn a bridge on the way out of town and by that point, a posse was in hot pursuit. The raiders had to abandon their plans to rob banks in two other towns.
The Confederates made it into Canada, but the posse followed and captured most of them; the Canadian authorities also snagged others. Some in the posse wanted to hang Young on the spot, but the Union captain heading the posse restrained. The men were tried in Canada and eventually released as the courts ruled that the action was legal during war.
The robbers grabbed about $200,000, but lost much of it during the escape. Canadian authorities managed to recover $80,000 and return it to the banks. Years later, Young sent a payment to the hotel for the cost of his room.
Sources:
Bushnell, Mark. “Then Again: Civil War reached St. Albans during a Confederate raid,” VTDigger.org, October 20, 2019.
“The Northernmost Land Action of the Civil War” stalbansraid.com.