Born in a small United States-Canada border town, as a young man he lived in a place where crossing the bridge over the St. Croix River to St. Stephen, New Brunswick for employment, shopping, hospitalization, or just visting friends, was an almost daily part of normal life. The two close-knit communities have shared services for more than two hundred years.
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Horatio Young traveled to Boston, Massachusetts where he joined the United States Navy. On November 16, 1863, the 18-year-old boy was serving aboard the USS Lehigh, when his ship ran aground in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. In rough waters, and under heavy enemy fire trying to stop him, Horatio Young made several attempts until he succeeded in passing in a small boat from his ship to the USS Nahant with a line wrapped on a hawser that would enable the Lehigh to be freed from her position.
His courageous action saved the lives of many men aboard the helpless ship and he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration.
Horatio Young died in 1913 and was interred in the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery, in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada surrounded by other Canadian and American honored war dead.