Jesse Herbert Merrill

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Jesse Herbert Merrill, Private, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in the Bois-de-Ronvaux, France, September 16 – 17, 1918. With the remark, “I can get through and I can find him,” Private Merrill volunteered and carried a message from his regimental commander to the commander of an advance battalion, through a fire that seemed impassible. He returned with amazing promptness with an answer to the message. This soldier made several other trips on the same night, finding his way through a dark forest, actually walking on bodies of men who had fallen in the only path that could be used.