| [Mercer] county was
named in honor of Hugh Mercer, a distinguished physician and soldier in
the Revolution. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1721. In 1746, at
the battle of Culloden, between the Highlanders and the royalists under
the fluke of Cumberland, he served as assistant surgeon. He had been
finely educated for his profession, in that battle he was among the
forces led by the pretender, Charles Edward, and on their defeat he
became a refugee and sought asylum in America. He became the first physician in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. After Braddock’s defeat in 1755, the Indians made forays into the Cumberland valley, and for protection the settlers formed themselves into militia companies, of one of which Dr. Mercer became captain. He took part in the Indian campaigns, and in 1757 was promoted major in the forces of the Province of Pennsylvania. While on the expedition of General John Forbes against Fort DuQuesne, he first became acquainted with George Washington, and a warm friendship resulted between them. After the successful outcome of this expedition, Mercer was left in command of the captured Fort DuQuesne, having now been promoted colonel. Between the close of the French and Indian war and the outbreak of the Revolution, Colonel Mercer was induced by Washington to take up his residence at Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the war for independence began, Dr. Mercer was commissioned colonel in a Virginia regiment, and soon after, on the recommendation of General Washington, was made a brigadier general. He was with Washington’s arms’ in its retreat across New Jersey, assisted in the capture of the Hessian troops at Trenton after the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas, 1776. At the battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, while leading the vanguard of the Americans. his horse was shot under him, and he was compelled to continue the contest on foot. He was speedily surrounded by British officers, who ordered him to surrender. Disregarding the summons, he drew his sword and began an unequal contest. He was finally beaten to the ground with muskets and his body pierced with bayonet thrusts. With five wounds in his body and two in his head, he was left on the field supposed to he dead. He was carried to a neighboring house. When Washington heard of the fate of his old friend, he sent his nephew. Major Lewis, to watch over the final moments of the dying hero, who passed away January 12, 1777. Source: (Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, 1909, Vol. I, pages 24-25) General Hugh Mercer Among the many acts of tyranny and oppression, which exiled from Britain her noblest sons, and which crowded the forests of America with an educated and enterprising population, was the memorable battle of Culloden. The dull pen of history slumbers over the details of that terrific conflict, while romance has caught from it some of the proudest examples of virtue, patriotism and chivalry. The Stuarts' throne was filled by a sullen and phlegmatic race - the unholy union with England; a nation's birthright prostituted to sale by a hireling parliament - the burnings, wastings and judicial murders, under the iron law of the sword, and the heroism of her true, though proscribed sovereign, all conspired to leave a festering wound on the heart of Scotland, and to render her restless and insubordinate under the rule of a foreign king. The battle of Culloden quenched the last gasp of her independence, and the stern revenge inflicted on the vanquished by the merciless Cumberland, while it filled the nation with woe and wretchedness, expelled from her bosom those sons whom power could not purchase, and whom cruelty could not conquer. In that memorable engagement, the subject of our memoir bore an honorable part in the service |
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| of his oppressed
country. Having graduated at an early age in the science of medicine,
lie acted on this occasion as an assistant surgeon, and with a
multitude of the vanquished, he shortly after sought a refuge of virtue
and a home of freedom in the wilderness of America. Landing in Pennsylvania, he remained there a short time. From thence he removed to Fredericksburg in Virginia, where he married and became highly distinguished for his skill and success as a practitioner of medicine. An unsubdued enemy - merciless, treacherous and revengeful, hovered around the frontiers of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, repressing settlements - murdering defenseless women and children, and frequently making inroads into the cultivated and open country of the colonies. Joining the army under Washington, which was collected for the purpose of subduing the Indians, General Mercer, then holding the rank of captain, became an actor in those wild, perilous, and spirit-stirring scenes which characterized the Indian war of 1755. In one of the engagements with this wily foe he was wounded in the right wrist by a musket ball; and in the irregular warfare then practiced, his company scattered and became separated from him. Faint from loss of blood, and exhausted by fatigue, he was closely pursued by the savage foe, their thrilling war-whoop ringing through the forest, and stimulating to redoubled energy the footsteps of their devoted victim. Fortunately the hollow trunk of a large tree presented itself. In a moment he concealed himself in it, and though his pursuers reached the spot and seated themselves around him, he yet miraculously escaped! Leaving his place of refuge, he sought the abodes of civilization, through a trackless wild of more than one hundred miles in extent, and after supporting life on roots and the body of a rattlesnake, which he encountered and killed, he finally reached Fort Cumberland in safety. For his gallantry and military skill in this war, proved in a distinguished degree, by the destruction of the Indian settlement at Kittaning, Pennsylvania, the Corporation of Philadelphia presented to him an honorable and appropriate medal. The commencement of the American Revolution found him in the midst of an extensive medical practice, surrounded by affectionate friends, and enjoying in the bosom of a happy family all the comforts of social life. Stimulated to action by a lofted spirit of patriotism, he broke from the endearments of domestic life, and gave to his country in that trying hour the energy and resources of a practiced and accomplished soldier. In 1775 he was in command of three regiments of minute men, and early in 1776 we find him zealously engaged as a colonel of the army of Virginia, in drilling and organizing the raw and ill formed masses of men, who under the varied names of sons of Liberty, minute men, volunteers and levies, presented the bulk without the order the mob without the discipline of an army. To produce obedience and subordination among men who considered military discipline as a restraint on personal liberty, and who had entered into the war unpaid and unrestricted by command, was a severe and invidious task. The courage - the fortitude - the self-possession of Col. Mercer quailed not to these adverse circumstances, and by the judicious exercise of mingled severity and kindness, he soon succeeded in reducing a mutinous soldiery to complete submission. Tradition has preserved the following anecdote, illustrating in a striking manner, his characteristic promptitude and bravery. Among the troops which arrived at Williamsburg, then the metropolis of Virginia, was a company of riflemen from beyond the mountains, commanded by Captain Gibson. A reckless insubordination, and a violent opposition to military restraint, had gained for this corps the sarcastic name of "Gibson's Lambs." They had not been long in camp before a mutiny arose among them, producing much excitement in the army, and alarming threat t the inhabitants of the city. Freed from all command, they roamed through the camp, threatening with instant death, any officer who should presume to exercise authority over them. In the height of the rebellion, an officer was dispatched with the alarming tidings to the quarters of Col. Mercer. The citizens of the town vainly implored him not to risk his life and person amid this infuriated mob. Reckless of personal safety, he instantly repaired to the barracks of the mutinous band, and directing a general parade of the troops, he ordered Gibson's company to be drawn up as offenders and violators of law, and to be disarmed in his presence. The ringleaders were placed under a strong guard, and in the presence of the whole army, he addressed the offenders in an eloquent and feeling manner — impressing on them their duties as citizen-soldiers) and the certainty of death if they continued to disobey their officers, and remained in that mutinous spirit — equally disgraceful to them, and hazardous to the sacred interests they had marched to defend. Disorder was instantly checked, and after a short confinement, those under imprisonment were released, and the whole company were ever after as exemplary in their deportment and conduct as any troops in the army. A similar incident in the life of Germanicus, must recall to the memory of the classical reader the imperishable page of the Annals, and he will find the glowing panegyric of Tacitus applying with redoubled force to the character of Col. Mercer. In the one case the legions of Pannonitae, on the death of Augustus, revolted for the sake of plunder, and the army of Germany which joined them, were inspired by the double motives of revolution and pillage. The virtue of Germanicus refused a crown stained with treason, and he was forced to suppress the rebellion by means degrading to the soldier, and disgraceful to the patriot. He addressed the hearts of an army composed of the refuse of Rome, in the language of sympathy and compliment, and the honor of the soldier did not blush at the cowardice of a largess. Col. Mercer appealed to the sense and patriotism of his rebellious soldiers - to the holy cause in which they were engaged; and while he awakened their remorse by his passionate eloquence, he asserted and maintained the supremacy of the laws. Colonel Mercer now joined the continental army, Congress having conferred on him the rank of Brigadier General; and throughout the whole of the stormy and disastrous campaign of 1776, he was a bold, fearless and efficient officer. The fatal conflict at Long Island - the capitulation at Fort Washington, and the evacuation of Fort Lee, were the painful preludes to the disastrous retreat of the American army. From Brunswick, through Princeton, to Trenton, our ragged and suffering army was driven by a powerful and exulting foe, until it was forced to cross the Delaware in search of an uncertain refuge in Pennsylvania. Dispirited by defeat, and disheartened by abject want, desertion daily thinned the feeble ranks of the patriot army, and in that darkest hour of our history the proclamation of General Howe, offering a free pardon, scattered far and wide the leprosy of treason. In vain did the commander-in-chief implore the assistance of the New Jersey and Pennsylvanian militia. Terrified or desponding, they refused all aid, and cautiously withdrew from an army now rapidly approaching the verge of destruction. Flushed with victory, the enemy rioted on the plunder of the country, and calmly awaited the extinction of its humbled foe. The genius of Washington arose above these accumulated misfortunes. He could no longer repress the fatal disease of desertion and treason, which was fast reducing his army to a skeleton. The torrent of ill fortune threatening to overwhelm his country, must be rolled back on the enemy, and he resolved to hazard one desperate effort for victory. On the night of the 25th December, 1776, he crossed the Delaware at Trenton —surprised a body of Hessians stationed there - took nearly nine hundred prisoners, and immediately recrossed the river, having lost but nine of his men. This bold and masterly stroke awoke Cornwallis from his dream of conquest, and leaving New York, he returned with an additional force, and concentrated his troops at Princeton. A portion of Pennsylvanian militia now joined the standard of Washington, and having persuaded the New England troops to serve six months loner, he again crossed the Delaware, and took post at Trenton. On the morning of the second of January, 1777, the enemy advanced to attack the American army. On their approach, Gen. Washington prudently retired across a creek which runs through the town, and then drew up his troops. The fords being guarded, the enemy could not pass, and halting, a brisk cannonade was kept up with great spirit by both sides until night. In this critical situation, Gen. Washington conceived the bold design of abandoning the Delaware, and marching silently in the night along the left flank of the enemy into their rear at Princeton. The plan was instantly approved by a council of war, and as soon as it was dark the baggage was removed to Burlington. About one o'clock, on the morning of the third of January, the gallant band - its van led by General Mercer, decamped, and silently threaded its circuitous march along the left flank of its exulting foe. Reaching Princeton about sunrise, General Mercer encountered three British regiments, who had encamped there on the previous night, and who there leaving the town to join the rear of their troops at Maidenhead. A fierce and desperate conflict immediately ensued. The American militia, constituting the front, hesitated, became confused and soon gave way, while the few regulars in the rear could not check the dastardly retreat. Ere the fortune of the day was changed, and ere victory perched on the patriot standard, the heroic Mercer fell. Rushing forward to rally his broken troops, and stimulating them by his voice and example, his horse was shot from under him, and he fell dangerously wounded among the columns of the advancing enemy. Being thus dismounted, he was instantly surrounded by a party of British soldiers, with whom, when they refused him quarter, he fought desperately with his drawn sword until he was completely overpowered. Excited to brutality by the gallantry of his resistance, they stabbed him with their bayonets in seven different parts of his body, inflicted many blows on his head with the butt ends of their muskets, and did not cease their butchery until they believed him to be a crushed and mangled corpse. Nine days after the battle he died in the arms of Major Geo. Lewis of the army, the nephew of General Washington, whom the uncle had commissioned to thatch over the last moments of his expiring friend. His latter hours were soothed by the skillful and affectionate attendance of the distinguished Doctor Rush. He complained much of his head, and frequently remarked to his surgeon, "that there was the principal danger," and Doctor Rush whenever he detailed the thrilling narrative of his patient's suffering, always described his death to the blows on the head more than to the bayonet wounds, although several of these were attended with extreme danger. In a small house, a few yards distant from that blood-red plain of carnage and of death, far away from the soothing consolations of domestic affection, this distinguished martyr of Liberty breathed his last. The victorious flag of his country proudly floated over a field of triumph, and without a murmur he sank into a soldier's grave-finding a hallowed sepulchre in the hearts of his countrymen, and a fadeless epitaph in their institutions. The mangled body was removed under a military escort from Princeton to Philadelphia, and exposed a day in the coffee-house, with the design of exciting by that mournful spectacle the indignation of the people. The Pennsylvania Evening Post for January 18, 1777, has thus recorded his death and funeral obsequies. " Last Sunday evening, died near Princeton, of the wounds he received in the engagement at that place on the 3rd instant, Hugh Mercer, Esq., Brigadier General in the continental army. On Wednesday his body was brought to this city, and on Thursday buried on the south side of Christ church yard with military honors; attended by the committee of safety - the members of the assembly —gentlemen of the army, and a number of the most respectable inhabitants of this city. The uniform character exalted abilities and intrepidity of this illustrious officer, will render his name equally dear to America faith the liberty for which she is now contending, to the latest posterity." The battles of Trenton and Princeton, in which General Mercer fought and bled unto death, were the most brilliant and fortunate victories won in the war of the Revolution. The establishment of our independence was now no longer a matter of doubt. Confidence was restored to our disheartened army, and a chord of sympathy was stricken which vibrated throughout all the country. Europe looked with astonishment on the military kill displayed by raw and dispirited soldiery, and in the indomitable fortitude of her banded chivalry, America felt that her independence was secured. General Mercer's elevated character, lofty heroism and brutal murder, excited a deep and affectionate sympathy throughout all the colonies. On the 8th of April, 1777,* Congress unanimously resolved, that a monument should be erected to the memory of General Mercer at Fredericksburg, Virginia; at the same time a similar monument to the memory of Gen. Warren was decreed; and Gen. Washington, in an official letter to Congress, thus alludes to these resolutions. "The honors Congress have decreed to the memory of Generals Warren and Mercer afford me the highest pleasure. Their character and merit had a just claim to every mark of respect, and I heartily wish that every officer of the United States, emulating their virtues, may by their actions secure to themselves the same right to the grateful tributes of their country." The fixed popularity of Gen. Mercer, and the cherished affection which the nation bore for his memory, was happily exemplified in the chaste and beautiful compliment of Lafayette. When he was in the United States a few years ago, the conversation in a particular company, turning on the prominent men of the Revolution, one of the company observed to him, that he, Gen. Lafayette, was of course acquainted with Gen. Mercer, not recollecting that Lafayette did not arrive in the United States until after the battle of Princeton. "Oh! no," said the General, "you know that Mercer fell in January, 1777, and I reached the United States in the ensuing spring; but on my arrival I found the army and whole country so full (of his name, that an impression has been always left on my mind since, that I was personally acquainted with him." In Wilkinson's Memoirs, several interesting particulars of the life and services of Gen. Mercer are related, and in alluding to his death, that writer remarks: "In Gen. Mercer we lost at Princeton a chief who for education, talents, disposition, integrity and patriotism, was second to no man but the commander-in-chief, and was qualified to fill the highest trusts of the country." The same author remarks, that an evening or two before the battle of Princeton, Gen. Mercer being in the tent of Gen. St. Clair with several officers, the conversation turned on some promotions then just made in the army. Gen. Mercer remarked, "they were not engaged in a war of ambition, or that he should not have been there, and that every man should be content to serve in that station in which he could he most useful - that for his part he had but one object in view, and that was the success of the cause, and that God could witness how cheerfully he would lay down his life to secure it." Little, adds the writer, did he or any of the company then think that a few fleeting hours would seal the compact. In the historical paintings of the battle of Princeton by Peale and Trumbull, Gen. Mercer is a prominent and conspicuous figure. That by Peale hangs in the chapel of Nassau Hall at Princeton, and that by Col. Trumbull is in the exhibition. *
It is still a resolution of Congress. How often are justice, gratitude
and honor forgotten in the low and vulgar conflicts of party? (Source: Southern Literary Messenger, Volume IV, No. 28) | ||||
