He was a fine type of the American regular.
Like General Chaffee, another of the same type, he had entered the army in the Civil War as a private.

Later, when I was President, it was my good fortune to make each of them in succession Lieutenant-General of the army of the United States.

When General Young retired and General Chaffee was to take his place, the former sent to the latter his three stars to wear on his first official presentation, with a note that they were from "Private Young to Private Chaffee." The two fine old fellows had served in the ranks, one in the cavalry, one in the infantry, in their golden youth, in the days of the great war nearly half a century before; each had grown gray in a lifetime of honorable service under the flag, and each closed his active career in command of the army.

General Young was one of the few men who had given and taken wounds with the saber.

He was an old friend of mine, and when in Washington before starting for the front he told me that if we got in his brigade he would put us into the fighting all right.