Very attractive Civil War Reunion lot of Ribbons for Michigan Battalion Merrill Horse to include 1) Twelfth Annual Reunion Michigan Battalion MERRILL Thursday, Sept, 19, 1885 Yellow Ribbon with a Federal Eagle clutching crossed Cavalry Swords to the top and a Horse to the bottom measuring 7 inches long 2) 1861 1865 Eighteenth Annual REUNION MICHIGAN BATTALION REGIMENT MERRILL HORSE At BATTLE CREEK and Goguac Lake Mich. September 25th, 1901 measuring just over 7 inches showing a Federal Eagle with Crossed Sabres 3) 1861 1865 Twenty third Annual REUNION Michigan Battalion Merrill Horse Battle Creek, Mich. Wednesday, Sep. 19, 06 showing a Cavalry Trooper on his Horse charging with his Sabre out. 4) Calling Card showing a Cavalry Charge with the text Frank Mason Post No. 242, Dept. of Mich. Co. H. Merrill Horse J. E. Mason Athens Mich. 5) 1861 1865 Twenty fifth Annual REUNION Michigan Battalion Merrill Horse Battle Creek, Mich. Tuesday, Sep. 22, 08 showing a Cavalry Trooper on his Horse charging with his Sabre out. 6) 1861 1865 Thirty first Annual REUNION Michigan Battalion Merrill Horse Battle Creek, Mich. Wednesday, Sep. 16, 14 showing a Cavalry Trooper on his Horse charging with his Sabre out. 7) 1861 1865 Thirty Eighth Annual REUNION Michigan Battalion Merrill Horse Battle Creek, Mich. Wednesday, Sep. 14, 1921 showing an American Flag.The "Merrill Horse" Michigan Battalion was a Union cavalry unit during the American Civil War. Formed from three Michigan companiesTroops H, I, and Lthey were attached to the 2nd Missouri Cavalry Regiment (also known as Merrill's Horse), serving primarily in counter-guerrilla operations and conventional cavalry missions across the Western Theater.History and Formation Official Designation: 2nd Missouri Volunteer Cavalry (unofficially and most commonly known as Merrill's Horse).Michigan Contribution: The Michigan Battalion consisted of Troops (or Companies) H, I, and L.Commanding Officer: The entire regiment was commanded by Colonel Lewis Merrill.Theater of Operations & Service Missouri (1862): Throughout most of 1862, Merrill's Horse was deployed on the difficult mission of hunting down Confederate guerrillas and irregular cavalry in northern Missouri.Broader Theater: As the war progressed, the regiment was called upon to perform more traditional cavalry duties, seeing extensive action in Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.Aftermath and Legacy: After the war, veterans of the battalion maintained strong camaraderie, holding regular reunions in Michigan locations such as Battle Creek and Marshall.Archival records from this unitincluding personal letters from the battalion's medical directorare housed at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. The 2nd Missouri Cavalry Regiment, also known officially as Merrill's Horse, was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of only a handful of Missouri regiments to be officially named as well as numbered. The regiment was raised under the authority of Major General John C. Frémont, commander of the Western Department of the U.S. Army, headquartered at St. Louis, Missouri. The regiment was organized by Captain Lewis Merrill, a regular Army officer and a veteran of the prewar U.S. 2nd Dragoons. Serving as a colonel of volunteers, Merrill organized companies of volunteers from Missouri and other western states at St. Louis's Benton Barracks. Merrill enforced a level of discipline unusual for volunteer regiments, demanding a level of professionalism comparable to U.S. Regulars. To distinguish the troops of his regiment, Merrill mandated a unique uniform. The front of the tunic featured a "horse-head" panel trimmed in cavalry yellow. The mandated cap was similarly unique: a sky-blue forage cap, with an orange welt (the branch color of pre-war Dragoon regiments) in honor of Merrill's service in the 2nd Dragoons. As with other areas of military discipline, Merrill allowed no deviation from his orders to his troopers in concerning their military appearance: "all additions to or alterations of this uniform as prescribed are positively prohibited and will not be tolerated under any circumstances." Through most of 1862, Merrill's Horse was assigned the difficult mission of fighting guerrillas and irregular Confederate cavalry in north Missouri. Often operating with Federal Missouri State Militia cavalry, the regiment established a reputation of extreme aggressiveness and effectiveness in the counter-guerrilla mission. Later in the war Merrill's Horse would provide distinguished service in more conventional cavalry missions against regular Confederate units. However, in Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama the regiment was repeatedly called on to return to the difficult specialist counterinsurgency mission of guerrilla fighting. The regiment is unusual in that it has two official designations. It was officially raised as "Merrill's Horse", and is usually referred to by that designation in the U.S. Army Records. However, after General Fremont was replaced as commander of the Western Department by Major General Henry Halleck received a second official designation at the 2nd Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. However, in almost all contemporary reports and records the regiment continued to be referred to as Merrill's Horse. Service: Organized at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, by Captain Lewis Merrill, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, U.S.A., under authority of Major General John C. Frémont, commander of the U.S. Army's Department of the West. Merrill organized his regiment from September 3 to December 11, 1861. (An additional Co. "L" was organized at St. Louis, Mo., January 1, 1863, and Co. "M" was organized at Warrenton, Mo. on June 30, 1863.) Before organization of Regiment was completed, it was ordered to march to Springfield, Mo., September, 1861. Fremont's Campaign against Springfield, Mo., SeptemberOctober. At Sedalia, Missouri, Mo., till January, 1862. Scout through Saline County, Missouri December 312, 1861. Expedition to Milford, Missouri December 1519. Battle of Shawnee Mound or Milford, Blackwater River, December 18. Roan's Tan Yard, Silver Creek, January 8, 1862. Knob Noster, Missouri January 22. Attached to Department of Missouri September, 1861, to January, 1862. District of Northeast Missouri, Dept. of Missouri, to June, 1863. District of Southeast Missouri, Dept. of Missouri, to August, 1863. 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Arkansas Expedition, to December, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Army of Arkansas, to January, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 7th Army Corps, Dept. of Arkansas, to May, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 7th Army Corps, to September, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, 7th Army Corps, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, District of West Tennessee, to muster out.Detailed Service: Moved to Northern Missouri and duty at Columbia, Glasgow, Sturgeon, Paris, Huntsville, Palmyra and Warrenton, operating against guerrillas and elements of the secessionist Missouri State Guard (MSG) January, 1862, to June, 1863. Expedition into Schuyler and Scotland Counties, against Porter's and Poindexter's MSG cavalry, July 12-August 8, 1862. Near Memphis, Mo., July 18. Brown Springs July 27. Moore's Mills, near Fulton, July 28. Kirksville August 6 (Detachment). Pursuit of Poindexter August 815, with skirmishes at Grand River, Lee's Ford, Chariton River and Walnut Creek, near Stockton, August 9. Switzler's Mill August 10. Little Compton Ferry, Yellow Creek, August 11. Roanoke September 6 (Detachment). Scotland and Boone Counties September 30 (Detachment). Joined Davidson's Cavalry Division at Pilot Knob June, 1863. Expedition to Little Rock, Ark., July 1-September 10. Grand Prairie August 17. Brownsville August 25. Bayou Metoe or Reed's Bridge August 27. Reconnaissance from Brownsville August 29. Bear Skin Lake, Ashby's Mills, September 7. Bayou Fourche and capture of Little Rock September 10. Pursuit of Price September 1113. Near Little Rock September 11. Duty at Little Rock till March, 1864. Steele's Expedition to Camden March 23-May 3. Benton Road March 2324. Okolona April 23. Prairie D'Ann April 912. Camden April 1518. Moro Bottom April 2526. Jenkins' Ferry, Saline River, April 30. Scatterville July 28. Duty in Arkansas till September. Operating against Price September and October. Booneville, Mo., October 912. Little Blue October 21. Big Blue, State Line, October 22. Westport October 23. Battle of Charlot October 25. Mine Creek, Osage River, Marias des Cygnes, October 25. Grierson's Expedition from Memphis against Mobile & Ohio Railroad December 21, 1864, to January 15, 1865 (Co. "E"). Near Memphis February 9 (Detachment). Moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., and duty operating against guerrillas in Georgia and Alabama and escorting trains from Chattanooga to Atlanta January to September, 1865. Mustered out September 19, 1865.Casualties: Regiment lost during service 3 Officers and 53 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 205 Enlisted men by disease. Total 262. Lewis Merrill (October 28, 1834 February 27, 1896) was a career officer in the United States Army noted for his work in resisting the early Ku Klux Klan organization in several Southern states. During the American Civil War, he combated guerrillas in Missouri.Life and workMerrill was born at New Berlin, Pennsylvania, the son of Sarah (Lewis) and James Merrill. He studied at the University at Lewisburg (Pennsylvania), graduated at West Point in 1855, was assigned to duty as second lieutenant with the First Dragoons, and served in Missouri, in Kansas Territory, and with the Utah Expedition. In 1861 he was appointed a first lieutenant with the 2nd Dragoons. In 1861, as colonel and first cavalry officer on the staff of John C. Frémont, he organized the Second Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, usually known as Merrill's Horse, to fight the secessionist Missouri State Guard and guerrillas in central Missouri. His regiment was well known for its strict military organization and its aggressiveness in carrying out its anti-guerrilla mission. Colonel Merrill later commanded the District of St. Louis and then the Department of Northern Missouri. In 1864, he was commander of the cavalry bureau at St. Louis and took part in the engagements at Franklin, Missouri. The next year, he was sent against guerrillas in northern Georgia and Alabama. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Merrill for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866. York County, South Carolina: After various western assignments he was placed in command of a military district in York County, South Carolina with orders to break up the Ku Klux Klan. In February 1871, before Merrill arrived in South Carolina, local black preacher Elias Hill met with local Ku Klux Klan leaders to negotiate the safety of blacks in the community. These negotiations were not successful, and around February 12, eight black men were killed by 500 to 700 whites in black gowns with masks, and was followed by nightly Klan raids for months. An important black leader in York County of that time was a former Union soldier and local militia leader named James Rainey, also known as Jim Williams. At that time, black militias like this were known as Union Leagues. On February 11, 1871, Jim Williams, along with June Moore (nephew of Elias Hill) and a group of blacks, met with a group of whites led by J. Rufus Bratton at a crossroads near Clay Hill to seek to deescalate tensions. Williams suggested that he would be willing to relinquish his militia weapons, and Black Union League leaders agreed to cease nighttime meetings. The truce was broken the next day when a race riot broke out involving 500 to 700 whites in neighboring Union County, killing eight blacks. On March 6, 1871, Bratton led a group of about seventy white men who attacked a number of houses and hanged Williams. Companies B, E, and K of George Armstrong Custer's Seventh U.S. Cavalry led by Merrill arrived in the area to try to quell the violence, Elias Hill stepped in to lead the league, now in disarray. In another raid shortly later, Hill's nephews, Solomon Hill and June Moore, were attacked and forced to renounce their Republican Party affiliation in the local paper, the Yorkville Enquirer. Elias Hill was also attacked on May 5, 1871. This was the first episode of Ku Klux Klan violence Merrill saw in York County firsthand, and he was unable to immediately step in to protect the black citizens of York County. Eight days after the attack on Hill, Merrill met with community leaders demanding change, although violence continued over the summer. Merrill's efforts eventually led to the dismantling of much of the Klan in the county, although Bratton, who ran away to Canada for a number of years to escape prosecution, was never successfully prosecuted. From 1871 to 1873, he succeeded in this so well that he received the thanks of the War Department. When similar conditions arose in the Red River district of Louisiana, he was made commander there in 1875, remaining until the following year. As a consequence of his activities, his nomination as lieutenant colonel in the regular army was held up for several years in the Senate by Southern sympathizers, but it was finally confirmed on September 27, 1890, retroactive to January 9, 1886. Merrill had retired as a major on May 21, 1886. General Merrill's gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery: One reason his appointment was held up in the Senate was that his peers did not highly regard him in the Seventh Cavalry. Major Marcus Reno labeled Merrill as a "notorious coward and shirk." Captain Frederick Benteen, who disliked Reno, commented, "Poor a soldier as Reno was, he was a long way ahead of Merrill," whom he also labeled a "chump." Finally, Merrill was accused of accepting cash rewards from a Carpetbagger government for the Ku Klux Klan members his command captured and of accepting a bribe while acting as a judge advocate in a court-martial. On February 27, 1890, Merrill was made a brevet brigadier general of the United States Army for his gallant service with the 7th Cavalry during the Battle of Canyon Creek, Montana, in September 1877. Merrill died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 27, 1896. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
