John Merryman

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John Merryman (August 9, 1824 – November 15, 1881) Merryman was the petitioner in one of the best known habeas corpus cases of the American Civil War.

A resident of Cockeysville, Baltimore County Maryland, Merryman was an officer in the Maryland State Militia unit that was tasked with disabling the railroad bridges into Baltimore following the Pratt Street Riot. Merryman was arrested at his home in Cockeysville by Union troops and imprisoned without charge. He petitioned the court of Roger Taney for a writ of habeas corpus, but the military refused to bring Merryman before the court because President Abraham Lincoln had issued an order suspending the writ. Taney struck down Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus on the basis of its unconstitutionality (see Ex parte Merryman).

He was married to Anne Louise Gittings.