Octavius Augustus Merrill
Octavius Augustus Merrill was born on August 1, 1820, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Senter and Lydia Merrill. He attended Harvard Divinity School in the early 1840s. By the early 1850s, he was working as a teacher in Gloucester. He married Mary Eliza Wonson on August 10, 1851, and their daughter Grace was born around 1853. He received an appointment as a local postmaster in May 1853, and he held the position for three months.
He enlisted in the Union army, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 1st Massachusetts Infantry Battalion on November 26, 1861. The battalion later became the 32nd Massachusetts Infantry. In May 1862, he was assigned to work as a hospital steward. He returned to his company “at his own request” that July. He fell ill in August 1862, and he spent the next few months in the hospital. A surgeon diagnosed him with vision impairment, rheumatism, and “general debility,” and he was discharged for disability on January 14, 1863.
He applied for a federal pension in February 1863 and eventually received one. He recovered his health by July 1863. As he explained to his former colonel, “As my health has been restored, I feel that my obligations to the Government are consequently renewed.” He felt “compelled by conscientious convictions to rally with all who may fly to the rescue of the Palladium of our liberties from the grasp of a vandal horde plotting usurpation, anarchy & ruin. To be apathetic in the presence of such a crisis in our national struggle would manifest the basest poltroonery, if not downright treason.”
In December 1863, he mustered in as a private in the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. The regiment served in Virginia and eastern North Carolina. He was promoted to sergeant major in February 1864 and then to 2nd lieutenant in October 1864. He mustered out on February 18, 1865.
He returned to Gloucester after the war, and he worked as a lighthouse keeper. He and his wife later operated a “summer hotel.” He died of “La Grippe” in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1893.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (5171) | Merrill, Octavius Augustus | 1820-08-01 | 1893-12-25 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: 2nd Lieutenant
- Rank highest: 2nd Lieutenant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 2
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1870, and 1880 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; 1855 Massachusetts State Census, available from Ancestry.com; Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, available from Ancestry.com; Massachusetts Marriage Records, 1840-1915, available from Ancestry.com; Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of Octavius A. Merrill, available from Fold3.com; Boston Evening Transcript, 27 December 1893; The Boston Globe, 1 December 1910; Octavius A. Merrill to Francis J. Parker, 1 July 1863, DL1943.025, Nau Collection
