behind AotW

This is George S Merritt‘s obituary notice in the New York Times of 18 October 1925. George was an Antietam veteran of Company G of the 16th Connecticut Infantry.

Although it’s possible, it is unlikely this little story is really true.

Except for members of Company H, which had been detached, nearly all the men of his regiment were captured at Plymouth, NC on 20 April 1864 (Private Merritt does not seem to have been one of them). Company H, with the few men of other Companies who were not prisoners or had been exchanged, attached, was assigned to duty in North Carolina; from Roanoke Island in April 1864 to New Berne in March 1865, where the remains of the 16th Connecticut mustered out on 24 June.