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Robert Hale Merriman

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Robert Hale Merriman
BornNovember 17, 1908
Eureka, California, U.S.
DiedApril 2, 1938(1938-04-02) (aged 29)
Tarragona, Second Spanish Republic
Cause of deathKilled in action or executed
EducationUniversity of Nevada, Reno
University of California, Berkeley
EmployerUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forAbraham Lincoln Brigade
Military Service
Allegiance Spanish Republic
Service/branch International Brigades
UnitThe "Abraham Lincoln" XV International Brigade
Battles/warsSpanish Civil War

Robert Hale Merriman (November 17, 1908 – c. April 2, 1938) was an American doctoral student who fought with the Republican forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He was killed while commanding the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades.[1]

Early years[edit]

Merriman was born in Eureka, California,[2] the son of a lumberjack.[3] He grew up in Santa Cruz, and graduated from Santa Cruz High School in 1925.[1] He studied economics at the University of Nevada. To earn some extra money at school, he joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) where he received basic training with arms.

In 1932, he graduated from the University of Nevada with an undergraduate degree in economics, and later that same day wed Frances Marion Stone, one year his junior.[4] That same year he returned to California as a doctoral student in economics at the University of California, Berkeley and worked as a teaching assistant. He became interested in the Soviet economic system, and obtained a one-year scholarship to study its agricultural economy in Moscow. His wife accompanied him.

While Merriman was studying in Moscow, the Spanish Civil War broke out. Merriman became convinced that defeating the fascists in Spain and then Germany would prevent a second World War[1], and against his wife's wishes, he left for Spain before his scholarship year was up to volunteer with the Republican side. His wife temporarily remained in Moscow.

Spain[edit]

Combat[edit]

Soon after his arrival in Spain on January 11, 1937, Merriman found his way to the town of Albacete[3], the mustering and training site for the XV International Brigade, into which all foreign volunteers for the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War were inducted, and was accepted into it. As few volunteers had any military experience, Merriman's ROTC training meant that, at the age of 28, he was put in charge of the training of the 428-man[5] Lincoln Battalion (later to be popularly known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade). In late January, he was appointed battalion commander.[6] He held the rank of Captain of the Spanish Republic. [citation needed]

The Lincoln Battalion, one of four XV International Brigade battalions and composed mostly of American volunteers, first saw action at the Battle of Jarama (6–27 February 1937).[7] Their role was to prevent Nationalist forces taking the main Madrid-Valencia road. The Lincolns took appalling casualties, particularly in the assault of Pingarrón, which became known as Suicide Hill.[8] Merriman himself sustained a serious shoulder wound, and while recovering spent time as Chief of XV Brigade Staff.[9] His place as battalion commander was taken by Martin Hourihan (a US Army veteran).

On March 2, Merriman cabled his wife to join him in Spain. She helped nurse him back to health and also joined the International Brigades.

The depleted Lincolns next went into action at the Battle of Brunete (6–25 July 1937). Together with the depleted British Battalion and an understrength second US battalion (the George Washington Battalion, commanded by African American Oliver Law), they formed one regiment[10] of the XV International Brigade. Of the 2,500 men of the XV who went into battle, only 1,000 effective soldiers remained.[11]

The Americans ... were cut to pieces. The Washingtons sustained fifty percent casualties and the Lincolns were heavily depleted as well. Of the eight hundred Americans in the Lincoln and Washington Battalions at the start of the Brunete offensive on 6 July, only five hundred effectives remained.[clarification needed][11]

Death[edit]

Merriman led the Lincoln-Washington Battalion again during the Battle of Teruel during the Aragon Offensive of March 1938. Under heavy attack by Nationalist tanks and aircraft, the Americans had been badly mauled at the Battle of Belchite. The battalion was forced to retreat towards Catalonia and its boundary river, the Ebro.

On April 2, the battalion made camp in the vineyards near Corbera d'Ebre. However, the Americans were unaware that the town had been captured by the Nationalists earlier that day. As the troops passed through the town, Merriman, and his second-in-command, David Doran, as well as several other American officers from the Lincoln and Washington Battalions, were captured. One anonymous account states they were executed.[12][13][14]

For some time, Merriman's family was led to believe he was safe because of conflicting reports about his whereabouts. His wife had returned to the United States the previous January. She had originally planned to return to Spain, but never heard from him after March. On April 13, there was news that he had "miraculously escaped death or capture", but she eventually came to believe he died in the retreat.[15][16][17][18]

Ideology[edit]

Whether Merriman subscribed to a communist ideology as did many of the foreign volunteers for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War is uncertain, though he certainly had left-leaning sympathies. According to his wife's memoir, to various accounts written by those who knew him or knew of him in Spain, and to Comintern archives, he was not a communist, or in any case not a member of a communist party. However, his diary entries of Feb. 17 and 18 of 1937, written on the eve of the Lincoln Battalion's first battle, read in part:

...May others live the life I have begun and may they carry it still further as I plan to do myself. Long live Communism!...Long live the Soviet Union! Men may die but let them die in a working class cause.

There is no evidence Merriman was a Soviet agent.

Legacy[edit]

His widow later remarried and had three children. She worked at Stanford University and in 1986 published a memoir, American Commander in Spain.[1]

The 6'4" Merriman is believed to have been the inspiration for Robert Jordan in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Merriman and Hemingway briefly met in Madrid, and Hemingway was "deeply impressed" with the young idealist.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Varcados, Marybeth (April 5, 1987). "A Santa Cruz son remembered as hero". Santa Cruz Sentinel. p. 57.
  2. ^ "Wife Fears Eastbay Spain War Volunteer is Dead". Oakland Tribune. June 7, 1938. p. 5.
  3. ^ a b c Gilmore, David D. (June 8, 1986). "Casualties of a 'Pure War'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  4. ^ Merriman, Marion (1986). American Commander in Spain: Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.
  5. ^ Coleman, Some Men Put In Their Lives p. 41
  6. ^ Coleman, Some Men Put In Their Lives p. 42
  7. ^ 15th Bn Sixth February (Franco-Belgian); 16th Bn British; 17th Bn Lincoln (mostly American); 18th Bn Dimitrov (Balkan). Source: Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain, p. 210.
  8. ^ "Of the 400-some men who had begun the attack, between 80 and 100 effectives remained at nightfall." Coleman, Some Men Put In Their Lives p. 44
  9. ^ Image: Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
  10. ^ The second regiment was remnants of the Dimitrov Battalion and Sixth February Battalion and a Spanish battalion (Volontario 24) Source: Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, pp 460-461.
  11. ^ a b Coleman, Some Men Put In Their Lives p. 88
  12. ^ Martí, Anna (July 2012). "In the footsteps of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion". Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  13. ^ "Siguiendo los pasos del Batallón Lincoln-Washington" http://www.albavolunteer.org/2012/07/siguiendo-los-pasos-del-batallon-lincoln-washington/
  14. ^ "Robert H Merriman, Born 11/17/1908 in California". CaliforniaBirthIndex.org.
  15. ^ "Merriman's Fate Proves Mystery". Reno Gazette-Journal. June 18, 1938. p. 16.
  16. ^ "Californian Escapes Death in Fighting with Loyalists". The Los Angeles Times. April 14, 1938. p. 3.
  17. ^ "Nevada Man on Rebel Forces is Captured". Nevada State Journal. June 17, 1938. p. 1.
  18. ^ "Release of Volunteers Hoped to Show Fate of Nevadan Fighting Abroad". Nevada State Journal. October 11, 1938. p. 12.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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