Pierce Manning Butler YoungMajor General, Provisional Army of the Confederate States
"He was a soldier who loved battle for its clangor and tumult, for the opportunity it offers to bravery and skill, an for the fire it kindles in a courageous heart."The Anderson Intelligencer (S.C.), August 5th, 1896
 (Compiled Service Record) |
Born: November 15th, 1836, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the son of Robert Maxwell (1798-1880) and Elizabeth Caroline Jones Young (1808-1884)
Pre-War: Moved with the family to Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia, in 1839; attended the Georgia Military Institute at Marietta, Georgia, from 1852 to 1856, when he graduated; studied law in Marietta, Georgia, from 1856 to 1857; appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from the State of Georgia; entered the Military Academy as a Cadet on July 1st, 1857; resigned from the Military Academy on March 7th, 1861.
Service: Appointed as a Second Lieutenant of Artillery in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on March 16th, 1861; on duty at Pensacola, Florida, from April 1861; serving as an Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier General William H.T. Walker at Pensacola, Florida, from May to July 1861; appointed as a First Lieutenant with Cobb's Legion, Georgia Volunteers, on July 24th, 1861; mustered into Confederate service as First Lieutenant & Adjutant of the Legion in August 1861 for the duration of the war; promoted to Major on September 5th, 1861; promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on November 15th, 1861; commanding the Cavalry Battalion of the Legion from 1861 to 1863 as part of Wade Hampton Cavalry Brigade; wounded (gunshot wound to the leg) on September 13th, 1862, near Burkittsville, Maryland; promoted to Colonel on December 29th, 1862, to rank from November 1st, 1862; wounded (gunshot wound to the chest) on August 2nd, 1863, near Brandy Station, Virginia; furloughed for thirty-days from August 7th, 1863; promoted to Brigadier General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate |
States on October 10th, 1863, to rank from September 28th, 1863, the appointment being confirmed by the Confederate Congress on February 17th, 1864; commanding Young's Brigade (composed of Cobb's Legion, Jeff Davis Legion, Phillips Legion and the 7th Georgia Cavalry Regiment) as part of Hampton's (Butler's) Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, to December 1864; ordered to Georgia with the dismounted men of his brigade for the purpose of obtaining horses on November 23rd, 1864; promoted to Major General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on January 28th, 1865, to rank from December 30th, 1864, the appointment being confirmed by the Confederate Congress on January 28th, 1865; served in Augusta, Georgia, in November 1864, to gather reinforcements and aide in the defense of that city; commanding Young's Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of Tennessee, to May 1865, in operations in South Carolina.
Post War: Engaged as a planter at Walnut Plantation in Cartersville, Georgia, from 1865 to 1896; elected as a democrat from Georgia to the United States Congress, and served from July 25th, 1868, to March 3rd, 1869; elected to the Fifty-First Congress in 1869, however the House decided he was not entitled to the seat, but he was then elected to fill the vacancy which was caused by the decision; elected as a democrat from Georgia to the United States Congress, and served from December 22nd, 1870, to March 3rd, 1875, however he did not win the nomination for another term in 1874; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1872, 1876 and 1880; appointed as a United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1878; served as the United States Consul-General at Petersburg, Russia, from June 17th, 1885, to December 18th, 1887, when he resigned due to the "severe climate of that city upon my constitution;" served as the commander of the Georgia Division of the United Confederate Veterans in 1892; served as the United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Honduras & Guatemala, having his residence at Guatemala City, from April 4th, 1893, to May 23rd, 1896; arrived in New York City, New York, on June 24th, 1896; patient at the Presbyterian Hospital at New York City, New York, from June 25th to July 6th, 1896, where he underwent an operation from which he failed to recover.
Died: July 6th, 1896, at New York City, New York
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia
Resources
Pierce Manning Bulter Young Collection; Etowah Valley Historical Society, Cartersville, Georgia.
Pierce M.B. Young Papers; Georgia Department of Archives & History, Atlanta, Georgia.
"Pierce M.B. Young: The Warwick of the South." Lynwood M. Holland; University of Georgia Press; Athens, Georgia; 1964.
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