[1][2] From 1845 to 1848, Young was attached to the 74-gun ship-of-the-line USS Columbus, the flagship of Commodore James Biddle, commander of the East India Squadron.

[3][2] In 1860, Young reported aboard the sidewheel steam frigate USS Susquehanna, which operated in the Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Squadron, and along the United States East Coast.

He was aboard Susqehanna when the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, and participated in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

From November 1861 to June 1862, he was executive officer of the sloop-of-war USS Jamestown, engaged in the blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina, and from June 1862 to November 1862 he was executive officer of the sidewheel steam frigate USS Powhatan on blockade duty off Charleston, South Carolina, being promoted to lieutenant commander on 16 July 1862.

He then served ashore at the Naval Observatory from 1869 to 1870 and the Portsmouth Navy Yard from 1871 to 1872, and then as commanding officer of the receiving ship USS Ohio from 1872 to 1873.

[7] Young died at Crocker House in New London on 17 May 1885 of a recurring fever he had contracted six weeks previously in Washington, D.C., while sitting as a member of the court martial of former Surgeon General of the United States Navy Philip S. Wales.