Under the leadership of Confederate Lieutenant Bennett Young, 21 cavalrymen staged 3 armed bank robberies in the town of St. Albans, Vermont on October 19th, 1864.
The troupe had assembled in Canada and the overall plan was to make a series of raids across the border in order to gain funds to finance the South. Their total take for the robberies was just over $200,000. Quite a tidy sum in 1864. Additionally Young ordered the town to be burned but the “Greek Fire” the raiders used failed and ultimately only one shed was destroyed.
Young and his raiders fled back to Canada and were arrested. A court in Canada refused to extradite them stating that the men were under Military orders and Canada’s neutrality prohibited such an action. All the raiders were freed but nearly $90,000 recovered from them was returned to the Vermont.
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