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Samuel Baldwin Marks Young (January 9, 1840 – September 1, 1924) was a United States Army Lieutenant General. He also served as the first president of Army War College between 1902 and 1903. He then served from 1903 until 1904 as the first Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
Biography
Young was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to John Young Jr. and Hannah Scott Young. He was educated at Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) and married Margaret McFadden in 1861.
On the outbreak of the rebellion, he joined the 12th Pennsylvania Infantry in April 1861 as a private. After the expiration of his term he was commissioned Captain, 4th Pennsylvania Infantry in September. He served with distinction in the Army of the Potomac throughout the war, receiving promotion to major in September 1862, to lieutenant colonel in October 1864 and to colonel in December 1864. By the end of April 1865, Young had achieved brevet rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers in recognition for his services in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign.
After the Civil War he stayed in the Regular Army as a Second Lieutenant, and was promoted to Captain of the 8th U.S. Cavalry in July 1866. He served with distinction throughout the Indian Wars and was regularly promoted, rising to the rank of Colonel of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry in 1897.
On the commencement of hostilities with Spain he was promoted Brigadier General of Volunteers and in July 1898 made Major General of Volunteers while he commanded a division in Cuba during the Santiago Campaign of the Spanish-American War.
During the Philippine-American War, he returned to the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers and commanded brigades in the Northern Luzon District, of which he was made military governor.
From February 1901 to March 1902, he commanded the military district of California from the Presidio of San Francisco. In 1901 his daughter Marjorie married army surgeon John Heysham Gibbon, nephew of fellow Civil and Indian War commander John Gibbon. Under the new General Staff System, he was appointed as the first Chief of Staff of the Army in August 1903, a position he held until retirement in January 1904.
In 1909-10, he was President of a Board of Inquiry that investigated the alleged riot of black soldiers of the 25th U.S. Infantry at Brownsville, Texas, August 13, 1906, and affirmed the subsequent dishonorable discharge of 159 men by order of President Theodore Roosevelt.
As acting Military Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park in 1897 (after a stint in the same role at Yosemite in 1896) he introduced fish conservation measures. He returned to the park as full Superintendent 1907 – 1908. He died at his house in Helena, Montana, and was honored with a state funeral in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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