Col. Lewis Merrill-- Part 6: "Cleaning Up" South Carolina and Louisiana

Eight days after the attack on Hill, Merrill met with community leaders in York County and demanded change.  But the violence continued into the summer.

Not to be denied, Merrill's efforts eventually led to the dismantling of the Ku Klux Klan.  Opposition leader J. Rufus Braxton, however, escaped to Canada to avoid prosecution for his role in the deaths.  He lived there for several years and never was prosecuted for his role.

Merrill succeeded so well in defusing the situation that he received the thanks of the War Department.  When a similar situation arose in the Red River area of Louisiana, Lewis Merrill was dispatched there in 1875 and by the following year he had it cleared up as well.

As a consequence of that,  he received nomination for the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army, but that was held up for several years by Southern sympathizers in the Senate.  But it was finally confirmed in 1886, the same year Merrill retired from the Army.

--Old Secesh