Elm ID certainly can be challenging, and while we are not positive of its ID from the photos, we don't think this is an American Elm. Several non-native Elm species can germinate in less-than-ideal locations (as this appears to be given the gravel and likely soil compaction) so this sapling is probably one of the species native to Asia that is considered a weed because of how readily it spreads. Tools such as Virginia Tech's tree ID keys can help with differentiating between similar tree species, though the characteristics most heavily relied-upon for species-level ID (flowers, seeds, and to a lesser extent bark characteristics) are unfortunately not useful in this case since the sapling is so young. In winter, dormant leaf bud shapes and scars on the twig from where the leaves were attached can be useful, so if you don't happen to remove the sapling before then, you can try to use dormancy ID traits to narrow-down which Elm this may be.

Miri