JAMES YOUNG -- 96th INFANTRY BORN LONDONDERRY -- DIED VIRGINIA - On December 6, 1861, at hirty-five-year-old carpenter from Londonderry in Northern Ireland enlisted in the 96th Infantry in Rouses Point. James Young was 5'6½"tall, had blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion. He and 20 other men enlisted in Rouses Point late that fall and left for Virginia in March 1862 after mustering at Plattsburgh Barracks. The new recruits fought on the Virginia Peninsula through the fall of the year suffering 144 casualties -- 97 of which were men who were captured by the enemy. From December 1862 when they started on the Expedition from New Bern to Goldsboro, to the end of 1863, the 96th was in North Carolina. The expedition, also known as Foster's Raid, was a series of battles initiated by Union General John G. Foster from New Bern to Goldsboro, with military objectives of destroying the railroads, depots, and the vital Goldsboro Bridge on the Neuse River. The bridge was burned down thus cutting the supply line from Wilmington on the coast to Confederate assets inland. While in camp at the end of the year, James re-enlisted as a veteran. In April 1864, the regiment was sent to the Seat of Battle around Richmond and Petersburg garnering 292 casualties on the field between May and the end of October. James became a casualty of war that summer, but not on the battlefield. He became ill and was sent downstream to hospital at Fort Monroe where he died on July 16, 1864, of chronic diarrhea. He was buried in Section E of the new Hampton National Cemetery that had been in existence for two years to bury Union soldiers who had died in service or at Fort Monroe. So far, we have found twelve men buried in this cemetery who enlisted in Clinton County.
