Dr. Merari Bunajah Stevens - Bishop Post, G.A.R. -The War Years

Born in Livingston County, New York, in 1844/1845 to Harvey and Hannah Ann (nee' Gale), Merari was a good student and exceptionally bright young son, who worked his way to a medical degree.  (Merari, a Biblical name, son of Levi). His father was a teacher and his siblings also went on to higher educations.  His brother, Alviso, was a graduate in pharmacy at the University of Michigan and his sister, Naomi, taught for many years in New York.

When his mother, Hannah, died in 1863, both Merari and his father enlisted into Company L, 8th New York Heavy Artillery.  The son was 18 and the father about 49 years old.  This decision came to a tragic end.

From the New York Muster Rolls

 The Commemorative Biographical Record of Northwestern Ohio spoke to Merari's war experience in this entry on page 76:

 - this action being in the highest sense voluntary, as age in the one case and extreme youth in the other exempted them from subjection to the draft for the increase of the army, as also to other military duty.  They soon joined their regiment, which was then located at Baltimore, and while on duty there the son was afflicted with a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism.  

In the spring of 1864 (while he was suffering from it), the regiment was ordered to the front, and as he was so nearly disabled by the swellings attending his malady, his father and others advised him to go to the hospital; but the same spirit that inspired the lad to enlist now asserted itself, and impelled him forward, still persistently on to the front, although suffering excruciating pain.

Keeping up with his company and regiment, he was ready for action, and with them, took part in the battle of Spotsylvania where his regiment acted as infantry. Their next engagement was at North Anna River, and this, in turn, was followed by the desperate conflict of Cold Harbor, where, in the brief space of half an hour, nearly ten thousand Union soldiers fell dead or wounded before the Confederate intrenchment.

During a charge on the enemy's fortifications, there, his father, alas! was shot down by his side, the fatal bullet passing toward the hips and the lower part of the abdomen, and inflicting a wound from which he died twenty-eight hours later, and soon for him the scene of the battle's roar and din was transformed to a peaceful, quiet spot - his final resting place - his son paying a last sad tribute of affection by placing a handkerchief over the face of the loved one as the body was consigned to the grave.  The son secured the deadly, battered bullet, which he still keeps as a sad memento."

 A visit to www.collectmedicalantiques.com added to the story of Dr. Stevens, sharing a letter he had written back home describing the ordeal.  He revealed that his father had died in Merari's arms in the morning after Merari, himself, had removed the bullet.

Parts of Merari's letter to his friend, Ezra: 

"Dear friend Ezra,

I take pen in hand to let you know that I yet live.  We are camped near Petersburg and we are having tolerable good times now.  However, that was not the case last summer during the 'killing season.'

We left Baltimore on May 15th...then we went to Coal (sic) Harbor getting ready for the grand assault on the 3rd.  The rebs had all the advantages of position an dthey were all well protected by breastworks and rifle pits.  When the order was given, we charged across the open plain into a hailstorm of rebel balls and shells.  Men were struck down as if by a giant sythe like grass in haying time andit was here that Father was struck...The bullet exited near the right hip ...and then with my bowie knife took the ball out...Then I helped carry Father off the field and I stayed with him until he died...Father must have suffered greatly...and he was  very brave and calm.  
Father said he was prepared to die and that he had done his duty.  He bade me farewell and then died in my arms.  So much bloodshed on both sides so as to be.  He bade me farewell and then died in my arms. So much bloodshed on both sides so as to be beyond description  If we could only live in peace with our Southern brothers."
                                                  

The Commemorative Biographies continued Merari's (known as M.B.) story:

"In this fearful battle (Cold Harbor), their regiment lost six hundred and seventy-eight in killed and wounded; but, notwithstanding this depletion in numbers, on June 16 and 18, it moved to the position assigned it in the battle of Petersburg, and June 22, while it was charging the Rebel works at that place, the son (M.B.) received a severe wound over the stomach from an exploding shell, which, together with rheumatism and other chronic troubles, kept him in hospital at Washington and the Harwood Hospital at Philadelphia three months, during which time he was reduced to a mere skeleton.

At the end of that time, having recovered to some extent - though still but a mere shadow of his former self, he, with other wounded soldiers, was ordered before the board of surgeons for examination as to fitness for active duty and, wholly unfit though he was, was ordered to the front again without even the semblance of a personal examination by the board.  Obedient to the command, the youthful soldier's pride and indignation forbidding remonstrance, he rejoined his regiment, then in front of Petersburg, and October 22 took part in the fight at Hatcher's Run.

He was subsequently one of a detachment to take charge of a battery before Petersburg, where he served from December 9, 1864, to the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, first as a gunner and then as acting orderly, and later as corporal, having been thus promoted.  After taking part in the grand review in Washington that followed the final triumph, he was discharged and mustered out of the service June 30, 1865, and though physically almost a wreck, and deprived of the companionship of him by whose side he had marched against the enemy, he returned to the paths of peace with the proud satisfaction of having done his duty to his country in its time of peril, and bearing a noble heritage in the sonship of a martyred hero."

Pension card

To be continued...

(This is part of a series on Civil War veterans of Defiance County who were part of the G.A.R., Bishop Post, that headquartered in the city.  Formed in 1879, the post was named after a local man, Captain William Bishop, Company D, 100th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Army who died as a result of wounds received in battle.  The veterans' photos are part of a composite photo of members that has survived.  If you have other information or corrections to add to the soldiers' stories, please add to the comments!)