Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Meeting for November 2025 - The Raid on St. Albans VT

The Dragoons of SCV Camp 1524 held their monthly meeting on Thursday evening November 13th at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Prattville.  The meeting started at 6:45 with Commander Grooms lead the pledges and salutes to the flags and reciting the SCV Charge.  Grooms then covered camp business including upcoming events.  One highlight of the meeting was the addition of a new member to the Camp 1524 ranks. Carson Abbott was officially sworn in as a Prattville Dragoon.  Dale Hamilton from Montgomery was recognized as a guest and for his recent electrical work at the I-65 Battle Flag site to illuminate the new banner billboard.  Next a few Alabama State Division awards were presented by Brigade Commander Waldo to members who have gone above and beyond in service to our great cause. Commander Harold Grooms was presented a Commendation Medal of Service. Adjutant Doug Butler was also presented a Commendation Medal for Service, and longtime compatriot Tyrone Crowley was given the Meritorious Award for Service.  Each award included a medal. 

 A very interesting presentation was made by Ret. Col. Jayson Altieri on The Raid on St. Albans, Vermont, which was the northernmost land battle that took place during the War Between the States, on October 19-20, 1864.  Col. Altieri classified it more so as a battle because militia were involved and shots fired.  By 1864, the Confederate forces and Jefferson Davis' strategy to defend the entire border were in dire straits.  The federal forces were advancing on Mobile and Sherman on Atlanta with Mead moving south toward a siege of Petersburg and Butler toward Richmond from the east. Tennesseee and the Mississippi River were largely under Union control after teh fall of Vicksburg.  Vermont contributed 34000 soldiers to the Union forces from a population of 350,000; VT actually replenished fallen soldiers with new recruits from the state.  Even today one in eight Vermont citizens has served in the military.  

Montpelier is the capital of VT and is a railroad junction/hub.  St. Albans is in the NW corner of VT near the Canadian border and the railroad runs from Montreal down thru St. Albans to Montpelier. St. Albans was something of a banking center at the time also.   As a Private in the 8th KY Cavalry, part of John Hunt Morgan's cavalry, Bennet Henderson Young was captured in 1863 but escaped and fled to Canada.  There, in Montreal he approached the office of Confederate official Jacob Thompson with his plan to raid federal banks in NY and VT. Young also hoped that these attacks would divert federal troops to a northern theatre and away from the attacks on the Southern states. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the CSA. 

On October 11th 1864, Young traveled to Philipsburg Canada, just north of the border and there over the next week twenty men met Young to form the 5th Company CSA Retributors, gathering for the raid, dressed in civilian clothes and posing as vacationers. On October 19th they advanced south across the border and into St.Albans where Young fired his gun in the town center and announced they were taking over the town.  They robbed the three banks there and made some of the tellers swear allegiance to the Confederacy.  They took over $200,000 which would be over $4M in todays dollars. There in the area was a Union offcier Capt. Conger who was on leave and he quickly rounded up a number of local men into a militia to come to defense.  Shooting ensued and one man on each side was wounded. Young and his men escaped and retreated back north to Canada destroying several covered bridges on the way.   Conger and his men surrounded the hotel in Canada where Young's raiders were staying but the Canadian and British authorities intervened.  After a hearing, the Confederates were released and $88000 from the heists was returned.  

As a direct result of this incursion, officers and cadets from Norwich University (the oldest military academy after West Point) were dispatched to Newport VT to defend the state from what they thought would be additional Confederate raids.  A book and an 1954 movie, The Raid starring Anne Bancroft were made based loosely on Young's raid on St. Albans.  As an additional educational point, we learned that Vermont in the 1980’s had a larger cow population, than citizens!