Robert Hale Merriman

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Robert Hale Merriman
Abraham 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

Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades.[1]

Early years

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 while attending the university, 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] Later that 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 in 1935 exercised a one-year scholarship to study in Moscow. His wife accompanied him. Merriman stated later that he spent a year studying at 'a communist academy' - probably the International Lenin School - then went on to study the Soviet agricultural economy. His wife's memoir recounts Merriman's visits to Soviet farm collectives, discussions with Soviet economic officials, and other activities concerned with the agricultural economy, but doesn't mention the Lenin School or other communist school.

While he 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

Combat

Soon after his arrival in Spain on January 11, 1937, Merriman found his way to the town of

Abraham Lincoln Brigade), and then by the end of January, appointed battalion commander.[6] He held the rank of Captain of the Spanish Republic. [citation needed
]

The

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
.

While Merriman was recovering, the depleted Lincolns, together with the depleted

Sixth February Battalion and a Spanish battalion (Volontario 24).[10] The two regiments next fought in the Battle of Brunete (July 1937). Of the 2,500 men of the XV who went into the 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

Now recovered, Merriman again led the

Lincoln-Washington Battalion during the Battle of Teruel during the Aragon Offensive (March 7-April 19 1938). Under heavy attack by Nationalist tanks and aircraft, the Americans were badly mauled at the Battle of Belchite (March 10). 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, unaware that the town had been captured by the Nationalists earlier that day. It is believed that Merriman was killed as the troops passed through the town, along with his second-in-command, David Doran, and several other American officers from the Lincoln and Washington Battalions. One anonymous account states they were executed after being captured.[12][13][14] His remains were never found.

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, planning to return to Spain, but she 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

Merriman apparently subscribed to a communist ideology, or was on the verge of doing so, by the time he arrived in Spain (many of the foreign volunteers for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War were communists), though prior to January 1937 he either was uncertain of it or chose not to openly profess it, even to his wife. In his wife's memoir, she states positively he was not a communist. And according 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. When he enlisted with the XV International Brigade, he was listed as an “anti-fascist”, a label used for non-communist volunteers. However, in January 1937, shortly after he enlisted, he applied to join the Communist Party of Spain. The Communist Party of Spain was the main entity organizing the international efforts against the fascists, and Merriman's motive for joining may not have been ideological conviction. 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

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

  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. ^ 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. 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

External links
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