Born in Danby, Rutland County, Vermont, on June 3rd, 1842, at the family home, just like his other siblings. We know very little about his life before the war, and what we do know is inferences based upon meager records of the family's activities and records from the general period. The first record including his name which was not from the census or church, would be his enlistment on August 5th, 1862, as a Sergeant in the Union Army.

On September 1, 1862 Merritt was mustered into Company C of the 11th Vermont Infantry Regiment, which would later become the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery Regiment. He was promoted to company 1st Sergeant on April 12th, 1863 , and promoted once more to 2nd Lieutenant on December 28, 1863. On June 23rd, 1864, he was killed in action at the Battle of Weldon Railroad, also known as the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, just south of Petersburg, Virginia. He was "shot over the left eye" by Confederate volley-fire.

His burial place is unknown, as he, like so many other thousands of men and boys of both the Union and Confederacy, he was buried in a mass-grave, likely one in the vicinity of Petersburg. This memorial in Hillside Cemetery is a Cenotaph, "a tomblike monument to someone buried elsewhere".

Born in Danby, Rutland County, Vermont, on June 3rd, 1842, at the family home, just like his other siblings. We know very little about his life before the war, and what we do know is inferences based upon meager records of the family's activities and records from the general period. The first record including his name which was not from the census or church, would be his enlistment on August 5th, 1862, as a Sergeant in the Union Army.

On September 1, 1862 Merritt was mustered into Company C of the 11th Vermont Infantry Regiment, which would later become the 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery Regiment. He was promoted to company 1st Sergeant on April 12th, 1863 , and promoted once more to 2nd Lieutenant on December 28, 1863. On June 23rd, 1864, he was killed in action at the Battle of Weldon Railroad, also known as the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, just south of Petersburg, Virginia. He was "shot over the left eye" by Confederate volley-fire.

His burial place is unknown, as he, like so many other thousands of men and boys of both the Union and Confederacy, he was buried in a mass-grave, likely one in the vicinity of Petersburg. This memorial in Hillside Cemetery is a Cenotaph, "a tomblike monument to someone buried elsewhere".