Robert Hale Merriman

Robert Hale Merriman (November 17, 1908 – c. April 2, 1938) was an American doctoral student who fought with the Republican forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He was killed while commanding the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades.

Early years
Merriman was born in Eureka, California, the son of a lumberjack. He grew up in Santa Cruz, graduated from Santa Cruz High School in 1925, and went on to study 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 with an undergraduate degree in economics, and later that same day wed Frances Marion Stone, one year his junior. 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 obtained 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, 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.

Combat
Soon after his arrival in Spain on January 11, 1937, Merriman found his way to the town of Albacete, location of the headquarters and training bases for the XV International Brigade, and was quickly accepted into the brigade. At this time, he began keeping a diary, which was recovered after his death. As few volunteers had any military experience, Merriman's ROTC training meant that, at the age of 28, he was at first put in charge of the training of the 428-man Lincoln Battalion (later to be popularly known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade), and then by the end of January, appointed battalion commander. He held the rank of Captain of the Spanish Republic.

The Lincoln Battalion, one of four XV International Brigade battalions and composed mostly of American volunteers, first saw action at the Battle of Jarama (6–27 February 1937). Their role was to prevent Nationalist forces taking the main Madrid-Valencia road. The Lincolns took appalling casualties, particularly in the assault of Pingarrón, which became known as Suicide Hill. Merriman himself sustained a serious shoulder wound.

While recovering, he spent time as Chief of XV Brigade Staff. His place as battalion commander was taken by Martin Hourihan (a 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.

The depleted Lincolns, together with the depleted British Battalion and an understrength second US battalion (the George Washington Battalion), were reorganized into a regiment commanded by Jock Cunningham. A second regiment of the XV International Brigade was composed of remnants of the Dimitrov Battalion and Sixth February Battalion and a Spanish battalion (Volontario 24). 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.

"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."

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.