Henry Clay Merriam

He Volunteered to Storm the Fort Before Orders Came

Henry Clay Merriam was born on November 13, 1837, in Houlton, Maine. Raised in northern Maine, Henry Clay Merriam grew up in a farming community and received his early education locally before attending Houlton Academy and later Waterville College, now Colby College. His education initially pointed toward a professional civilian career, but the American Civil War dramatically changed the direction of his life.

In 1862, Henry Clay Merriam left college to enter military service. Henry Clay Merriam helped raise a company of volunteers in Houlton and received a commission as Captain of Company H, 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry. The regiment became part of the Army of the Potomac and began a wartime career that would later become famous for its service in some of the most consequential campaigns of the Civil War.

Henry Clay Merriam’s own military path soon took a different direction. As the United States expanded the recruitment and organization of African American soldiers, officers were required to command the new regiments. Henry Clay Merriam accepted such responsibility and was transferred south, where he became associated with African American Union troops in Louisiana.

The regiment with which Henry Clay Merriam ultimately earned the Medal of Honor became the 73rd United States Colored Infantry. Its earlier organizational history was connected with Louisiana’s African American Union regiments, but by the later stages of the war it served under the standardized United States Colored Troops system.

Commanding African American soldiers during the Civil War carried military and social significance. These troops fought not only against Confederate forces but also in an environment where their legitimacy as soldiers had been fiercely contested. Officers such as Henry Clay Merriam were responsible for training, discipline, battlefield command, and proving through military performance that their regiments could operate effectively under combat conditions.

Henry Clay Merriam served with African American troops during operations in the Gulf region and gained substantial experience as a field commander. His wartime service included the campaign around Port Hudson, Louisiana, one of the Union’s major operations to gain control of the Mississippi River.

Port Hudson became the site of a prolonged siege in 1863. Union victory there, combined with the fall of Vicksburg, helped complete Federal control of the Mississippi River and divided the Confederacy geographically. The experience also hardened the African American regiments that had taken part in operations in the region.

By 1865, Henry Clay Merriam held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the 73rd United States Colored Infantry during the Mobile Campaign.

Mobile Bay had already been penetrated by Union naval forces in 1864, but Confederate fortifications continued to defend approaches to the city itself. In the spring of 1865, Union forces moved against the remaining defenses east of Mobile, including the formidable position at Fort Blakely in Alabama.

Fort Blakely was protected by earthworks, artillery, infantry positions, abatis, and other obstacles designed to make a direct assault extremely dangerous. Confederate troops occupied prepared defensive lines while Union forces gradually tightened their investment around the fort.

By April 9, 1865, preparations were underway for a major Union assault.

Henry Clay Merriam did not wait passively for events to unfold.

Before the general assault order had been issued, Henry Clay Merriam volunteered to attack the Confederate works with his troops. Permission was granted.

Henry Clay Merriam then led the 73rd United States Colored Infantry forward.

The decision was extraordinarily dangerous. Assaulting fortified earthworks required soldiers to leave whatever protection their own lines provided and cross exposed ground toward defenders who were already positioned behind fortifications. The attackers could face rifle fire, artillery, obstacles, and concentrated resistance before ever reaching the enemy line.

Yet Henry Clay Merriam chose to move ahead before the broader assault began.

The official Medal of Honor citation later captured the essential character of the action: Henry Clay Merriam volunteered to attack the enemy’s works in advance of orders and, after receiving permission, carried out a gallant assault.

The attack occurred on April 9, 1865—the same day General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House hundreds of miles away.

The war, however, did not instantly end everywhere with Robert E. Lee’s surrender. Fighting continued in other theaters, including Alabama, where the Battle of Fort Blakely became one of the final major assaults of the Civil War.

Union forces overwhelmed Fort Blakely, and the fall of the position helped open the way for the occupation of Mobile. Henry Clay Merriam’s decision to volunteer his regiment for an early assault became the defining battlefield act of his long military career.

The soldiers Henry Clay Merriam led were African American Union troops who had fought their way into one of the Confederacy’s final fortified positions. Their performance at Fort Blakely formed part of the broader record of the United States Colored Troops, whose service had become indispensable to the Union war effort by the final years of the conflict.

Although Henry Clay Merriam’s heroic action occurred in 1865, official recognition came much later.

On June 28, 1894, almost twenty-nine years after the assault on Fort Blakely, Henry Clay Merriam was presented with the Medal of Honor.

The Army Medal of Honor had been authorized by Congress in 1862 during the Civil War. At that time, the United States Army did not possess the extensive hierarchy of valor decorations developed in later generations. The Medal of Honor therefore became the principal national military decoration for extraordinary conduct by Union soldiers.

Many Civil War Medal of Honor recipients were recognized years or even decades after their battlefield actions. Henry Clay Merriam belonged to that group. The passage of nearly three decades between Fort Blakely and the presentation of the decoration did not change the action being recognized: a Lieutenant Colonel who voluntarily asked to attack fortified enemy works before the general order had arrived and then personally led the assault after receiving permission.

For the VictoriaCross.ca database, Henry Clay Merriam’s verified decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894.

The 1894 date represents the year in which Henry Clay Merriam received the Medal of Honor, while the heroic action itself occurred on April 9, 1865. No additional clasp, bar, star, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified for Henry Clay Merriam’s single Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore remains Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894 — No device or clasp.

The end of the Civil War did not end Henry Clay Merriam’s military career.

After briefly leaving volunteer service, Henry Clay Merriam entered the Regular Army. In 1866, Henry Clay Merriam received an appointment as Major in the 38th U.S. Infantry. This began a second and much longer phase of military service that would carry Henry Clay Merriam across the American West.

Henry Clay Merriam later transferred to the 24th U.S. Infantry and served at frontier posts during a period of sustained military operations and federal expansion in the West. His assignments included duty in New Mexico and along the Mexican border, where Army officers faced a mixture of military, administrative, and civil responsibilities.

Personal tragedy struck Henry Clay Merriam during this period. In 1870, while Henry Clay Merriam was away from his station, his first wife, Lucy Getchell Merriam, and their young daughter were killed in a flash flood in Texas. The disaster also claimed the lives of soldiers associated with the post.

Despite the loss, Henry Clay Merriam continued his Army career.

In 1876, Henry Clay Merriam was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd U.S. Infantry. Service in the Northwest brought responsibilities during the difficult period of the Indian Wars. Henry Clay Merriam held command and administrative assignments in areas that included Idaho and Washington and became increasingly experienced in the establishment and management of western military posts.

Henry Clay Merriam was closely involved with the development of Army infrastructure in the Northwest. His career included work connected with Fort Spokane and other western posts at a time when the Army was extending permanent installations across vast and often isolated regions.

On July 10, 1885, Henry Clay Merriam was promoted to Colonel of the 7th U.S. Infantry. Henry Clay Merriam subsequently commanded Fort Laramie in Wyoming and later served at Fort Logan, Colorado.

During the crisis on the northern plains in 1890–1891 following the death of Sitting Bull, Henry Clay Merriam again commanded troops in the field. By this stage, Henry Clay Merriam had served almost three decades and had moved far beyond the young Civil War officer who had led African American soldiers at Fort Blakely.

The United States Army promoted Henry Clay Merriam to Brigadier General on June 30, 1897.

The promotion placed Henry Clay Merriam among the Army’s senior officers and brought command responsibilities in the Department of the Columbia, covering much of the Pacific Northwest.

One of Henry Clay Merriam’s notable assignments during this period involved preparations for emergency relief during the Klondike Gold Rush. With large numbers of prospectors facing extreme winter conditions in Alaska and the Yukon region, Henry Clay Merriam organized military preparations for a relief expedition. The unusual requirements of Arctic operations forced the Army to obtain specialized cold-weather equipment and transportation.

The Spanish-American War in 1898 brought Henry Clay Merriam another major expansion of responsibility.

Henry Clay Merriam was appointed Major General of Volunteers and received command authority covering the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. Rather than leading a battlefield assault like the one at Fort Blakely decades earlier, Henry Clay Merriam’s responsibilities now involved the enormous administrative task of organizing, equipping, training, and transporting military forces across the Pacific.

The conflict and its aftermath required the United States to send substantial numbers of troops to the Philippines. Henry Clay Merriam played an important role in the logistical system that prepared and moved these forces westward from American ports.

The contrast with 1865 was remarkable. At Fort Blakely, Henry Clay Merriam had personally volunteered to lead an infantry regiment against Confederate fortifications. More than thirty years later, Henry Clay Merriam was a Major General responsible for military operations and troop movements across an entire region.

After the Spanish-American War, Henry Clay Merriam continued holding senior commands. His service included responsibility during the 1899 labor and civil disturbances in the Coeur d’Alene mining district of Idaho, where federal troops were deployed during a complex and politically sensitive crisis.

Henry Clay Merriam remained in active service until reaching retirement age. Henry Clay Merriam retired from the United States Army on November 13, 1901, completing nearly four decades of military service stretching from the Civil War to the opening years of the twentieth century.

In 1903, Henry Clay Merriam was advanced to the rank of Major General on the retired list. Major General therefore stands as Henry Clay Merriam’s highest verified rank, while Lieutenant Colonel remains the rank associated with the Medal of Honor action at Fort Blakely.

Military service was not Henry Clay Merriam’s only contribution. Henry Clay Merriam also devoted attention to improving equipment carried by ordinary infantrymen and became associated with the development of the Merriam Infantry Pack, an effort to distribute a soldier’s load more effectively. The design received international attention and reflected Henry Clay Merriam’s long-standing interest in the practical conditions under which enlisted soldiers served.

Henry Clay Merriam spent his retirement years primarily in Maine. After a military career that had carried Henry Clay Merriam from the battlefields of the Civil War to frontier posts, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska-related operations, and the mobilization for war with Spain, Henry Clay Merriam maintained his connection with his home state.

Henry Clay Merriam died on November 18, 1912, five days after his seventy-fifth birthday.

Henry Clay Merriam was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, placing the Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and career Major General among generations of American military personnel.

The military life of Henry Clay Merriam spanned an extraordinary period of American history. Henry Clay Merriam entered the Army during the Civil War, commanded African American soldiers when their role in the Union war effort was still being established, led troops at Port Hudson, and voluntarily attacked the fortified Confederate works at Fort Blakely.

Henry Clay Merriam then remained in uniform for decades, serving across the West, commanding major Army posts, becoming Colonel of the 7th Infantry, rising to Brigadier General, and ultimately serving as a Major General of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War.

Yet the moment that brought Henry Clay Merriam the nation’s highest military decoration remained the decision made on April 9, 1865.

Before the general order to attack Fort Blakely had arrived, Henry Clay Merriam volunteered to go forward.

Permission was granted.

Henry Clay Merriam attacked.

Nearly twenty-nine years later, that decision was formally recognized with the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1894, securing Henry Clay Merriam’s place in American military history.