Capt. Edgar C. Merriman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_C._Merriman

Edgar C. Merriman (1840 - 11 December 1894) was an officer in the United States Navy who served as the commander of the Department of Alaska from October 4, 1882 to September 13, 1883 as commander of the USS Adams.

Edgar C Merriman, son of Hiram and Adeliza (Munson) Merriman, was born in Bradford, N. Y., July 24, 1840, and died in Yonkers, N. Y., December 11, 1894. He attended the schools of his town and entered the University in 1854, remaining two years.

He was appointed acting midshipman U. S. N., September 21, 1857; resigned November 7, 1860; was appointed acting master December 3, 1861; acting lieutenant, September 25,1863; lieutenant from July 6, 1862; lieutenantcommander, July 25, 1866; commander, March 12, 1875; captain, July 31, 1890; was retired, September 26, 1891.

He was married March 6, 1869, to Emily Craven, daughter of Admiral Thomas T. Craven, U. S. N., "Academy" '23; Mrs. Merriman resides in Yonkers, N. Y.

• Books on Google Play Norwich University, 1819-1911; Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor, Volume 2 edited by William Arba Ellis

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The Adams had sailed from San Francisco for Sitka on Sept. 12, in command of Cmdr. Edgar Clarence Merriman. He had been born at Bedford, N.Y., on July 28, 1840, and was appointed to the Naval Academy in September 1857. He resigned in 1860 when he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis but recovered sufficiently to rejoin when the Civil War became imminent. He is listed with the class of 1861 and had an active career but was never in rugged health. He resigned again in 1891 because of poor health and died in 1894 at the age of 54. In the war, Merriman first served with a mortar flotilla that bombarded rebel forts, then was with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and finally came to the Pacific Squadron. He was an instructor at the Naval Academy and was executive officer of the Juniata on the Arctic voyage for the relief of the Polaris in 1879. After he took command of the Adams his first station was in Mexican and Central American Waters and from there he brought the ship directly to Alaska with a brief stop at the Mare Island Navy Base on San Francisco Bay. Five days after leaving San Francisco the Adams dropped anchor at Esquimault, the British Navy base adjoining Victoria, where she picked up a pilot whose name is not given in the ship's log. From Esquimault the Adams went to Nanaimo to load 61 tons of coal from the nearby mines, then headed on north. In those years steamers did not ordinarily run inside waters at night and the Adams anchored at Alert Bay, Bella Bella and Cardena Bay before entering Alaskan waters. About four miles south of Tongass Narrows, the Adams stopped near the Coast Survey ship Hassler. In those years the officers of the survey ships were mostly Naval Academy men and no doubt there were at least acquaintances on the two vessels. That night the Adams anchored in Ward Cove and the next day she went on to Highfield Anchorage, just north of Wrangel. The Wachusett was there, as she had been during much of her Alaskan tour. The officers made their official calls and it was arranged that the change of the Alaskan command would be made at Sitka. The Adams called at the sawmill town of Shakan, communicated with the shore but did not stop. She next went to Juneau where Cmdr. Merriman was confronted with something entirely outside his experience: a mining dispute. John Treadwell had purchased, on Douglas Island, a number of rich lode gold claims. He had interested some San Francisco financiers who financed a five-stamp mill and related equipment which Treadwell set up on the claims. overburden of decomposed quartz with a considerable gold content. A bunch of placer miners had moved in and staked placer claims and were sluicing off the rich overburden. That was not legal under American mining law, but the saying, "never a law north of 53," held here. The only court to which Treadwell could appeal was that of a miners' meeting, which settled local mining disputes but the placer miners dominated there, and especially the rough, tough bunch of Irishmen who were working on Treadwell's ground. He was not greatly concerned about the loose gold they were taking, even though that eventually amounted to an estimated 545,000. What did concern him was that they were using all of the water he needed for his mill and he was unable to run it at all. His San Francisco partners had offered to send up professional gunmen to clear out the placer men. (?) vetoed that, but when the Adams appeared in the channel he appealed to Merriman. Mike Powers, ringleader of the Irishmen, threatened to float a box of powder under the ship's stern and blow her out of the water. Merriman pointed out that she was a warship and had the guns to take care of herself, and he negotiated an agreement by which the placer men got the water for 12 hours a day but Treadwell got it for the other 12. The next stop was Kootznahoo, today known as Angoon, and there Merriman demonstrated that it was his intention to continue the policies of Cmdrs. Beardslee and Glass with regard to hoochinoo and hoochinoo stills. Lt. D. Delehenty and Ensign Heino Taylor and an armed crew were sent ashore "to search for hoochinoo stills among the Indian huts." They returned after a time with one Indian prisoner named Charlie, one still and one breaker of hooch. Delehenty reported that they were not well received. The next morning' they went again, this time with 15 armed Marines, but without finding any more stills. Some kind of deal was then made with Charlie who accompanied the search party as a guide. Eleven stills and 30 gallons of hooch were quickly found and destroyed. Charlie, still a prisoner, was taken to Sitka, perhaps for his own protection. The Navy, since 1867, had been involved with the Kootznahoos more often than with any Other Native group except those at Sitka. The Saginaw had had some problems when it opened a coal mining operation at Kootznahoo Inlet in 1869, then in 1870 the Cyane had sent a boat to rescue two American seamen held as prisoners. And in 1881, Cmdr. Glass had seized a boy, Too-woo-kah-ish whom two Kootznahoos were going to take home from Sitka as a slave. Glass renamed him Moses Jamestown and turned him over to the Presbyterian mission · school. Merriman's 1882 hoochinoo raid was only the first of his confrontations at Angoon. The Adams went through Peril Strait and the other inside channels to Sitka; the Wachusett had never) JHed that route. They found her at anchor at Sitka, transferred 12 men to her and received 24 men from her, and she sailed for San Francisco on Oct. 3.

• Daily Sitka Sentinel Tuesday, April 14, 1987 Page 5

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On June 14, 1879 the U.S. Navy took over command of the Department of Alaska. From 1879 to May of 1884 there were eight Navy administrators. Probably the most remembered was Cmdr. Edgar C. Merriman. During his command he caused the infamous naval bombardment of the village of Angoon. The following is a brief statement describing the incident:

A whaling ship was attempting to take a whale out in Chatham Strait on Oct. 22 when the gun exploded, spraying the crewmen with fragments. One struck and killed Tith Klane, a medicine man from Angoon, according to information from the Kootznawoo Heritage Foundation. Other Native crewmen took his body ashore. The Tlingit leadership demanded 200 blankets as reparation for the loss of Tith Klane.

According to a report to the U.S. Congress in late November of 1882 by Lt. M.A. Healy, the commanding officer of the Sitka-based Revenue Cutter Corwin, the superintendent of the whaling station at Killisnoo, J.M. Vanderbilt, arrived in Sitka on Oct. 23 — the day after Klane’s death — and told Navy officials he feared for his safety because the Angoon Natives had essentially “taken over” the Killisnoo station, demanding a repayment of 200 blankets for the life of Klane. Vanderbilt also claimed that two white employees of the company had been taken hostage by the villagers.

“If the demand (for the reparations) was not met the Natives threatened to burn the company’s store and buildings, destroy its boats and put to death the white prisoners,” Healy reported the Navy was told by the whaling station superintendent. (There is some question of Vanderbilt’s truthfulness concerning the prisoners.)

Capt. E.C. Merriman, besides being the administrator, was the commander of the largest Navy ship in Alaska, the USS Adams. He ordered the Corwin and a whaling company tugboat called the Favorite — which was armed for the mission — to respond to the situation. Merriman’s reasons for taking the other two ships was that he felt the Adams would be too large to effectively maneuver in the shallow waters near the village.

Healy reported after anchoring, “some of the ring leaders were captured and the release of the property effected.”

Then Merriman demanded that the Natives turn over 400 blankets to the Navy. Healy reported that the Navy threatened to destroy the village if the demand was not met. When the Natives did not meet the demand (Angoon records state that the villages offered 82 blankets), some 40 canoes were destroyed and the village was shelled and burned. Bill Jones, a nephew of Tith Kane, who was 13 when the attack occurred, was an eyewitness.

“They left us homeless on the beach,” he said.

Jones also told the anthropologist that his mother told him smoke from the fires suffocated six village children. With winter coming on, the villagers were in a desperate situation.

“The people of Angoon nearly starved to death, all of them,” he said. “How much we suffered.”

Jones said the villagers made temporary shelters and searched the beaches at low tide for anything they could eat; shellfish, gumboots, even the parts of fish left over from sea lion kills. He said it was nearly five years before the village recovered.

The shelling immediately caused a stir in Congress which — even though it was just six years removed from the 7th Calvary “massacre” at the Little Big Horn — was beginning to question the validity of how the U.S. military had been treating Native Americans in recent decades. There was discussion in Congress about an official investigation into the bombing, but no investigation was undertaken.

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