Benjamin Merrill, a resident of Andover, NH at the time, enlisted in the Ninth New Hampshire Regiment of Volunteers and was mustered into service in July of 1862. With his regiment he fought at South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, and The Battle of the Crater, among other places, and he was present at the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox. He was mustered out June 1865. Later in life he retired to New London where he died in 1911.