WILLIAM E. MERRILL -- 77th INFANTRYWOUNDED ON THIS DAY 157 YEARS AGO -- William E. Merrill was the son ofJohn and Ursula Merrill who kept a tavern in Malone, NY. When he was 21years old, he traveled to Keeseville to enlist in the 77th Infantry assoon as the call went out for men. He was enlisted on October 1, 1861.The regiment organized in Saratoga and left for Washington at the end ofNovember with William who was mustered in as a corporal.The regiment served in the Defenses of Washington until March 1862, whenthey were put on ships to sail to Fort Monroe at the bottom of theVirginia Peninsula. They were active at Yorktown, Williamsburg,Mechanicsville and in the Seven Days\' Battles.After a short time in camp at Harrison\'s Landing, the regiment enteredupon the Maryland Campaign. They climbed over Crampon\'s Gap and met itsfirst heavy loss at Antietam, where 32 were killed, wounded or missing.Moving by slow stages the troops reached Fredericksburg in time for thebattle in mid-December where they had two casualties.In the spring of 1862, at Chancellorsville the 77th assaulted Mary\'sHeights and had 83 in killed, wounded and missing. They were atGettysburg but not in the middle of the action and from there went on tobattles in Maryland and Virginia before thy went on the Mine RunCampaign at the end of the year.They started 1864 at the Wilderness and went on to Spotsylvania CourtHouse and lost about 175 men to casualty in the two battles. For therest of the year, they were before Petersburg and in the ShenandoahValley. In March 1865, they were back at Petersburg where William's luckran out. He was shot in the thighs and was absent in hospital when theregiment mustered out as a 1st lieutenant in June of 1865.William returned to Malone and lived there for the rest of his lifeexcept for some time spent in Utah. He in 1894 and Libbie received herpension until 1916 when she was buried in the Morningside Cemetery inMalone.
