GENERAL HUGH MERCER

By Jack Scott

    Mercer County, West Virginia, was named in honor of General Hugh Mercer, a forgotten hero of the American Revolution and a close friend of George Washington. Mercer was mortally wounded in the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1776 and died nine days later.

    Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1725, Mercer was the son of a Presbyterian minister and the maternal grand­son of Sir Robert Munro, a regimental commander in the British Army. At nineteen years of age, Mercer grad­uated in 1744 from the medical school of Aberdeen University in Scotland. In that year, a movement was underway to remove the German-speaking King George II and to restore to the throne of England the exiled House of Stuart.

    Prince Charles Edward, the last heir of the House of Stuart, who was just a little older than Hugh Mercer, raised his banner in 1745 in the Highlands near Glen­finnan in the beautiful setting of Loch Shiel. Since the Stuarts had been Scottish kings, it was not long until the loyal Highlanders were with their own Bonnie Prince Charlie in a “now or never” bid for the throne. Inspired by this rebel Prince and filled with an adven­turous spirit inherited from his maternal grandfather, Mercer volunteered as an assistant surgeon in the High­land Army, despite his father's warning against casting his lot with the lost cause.

    At Culloden Moor, near Inverness, on April 16, 1746, Mercer tended the Scots wounded in the violent clash between the Highland Army led by Prince Charles Edward and the British Army under the command of the Duke of Cumberland--a clash that ended the rebellion. To avoid capture and imprisonment or death after the carnage at Culloden, Mercer went in hiding near Aberdeen. Months later, after hearing of the escape of the Prince to France, Mercer began to consider his own plight and decided to migrate to America. In March of 1747, he booked passage from Leith, now a part of Edinburgh, to the Pennsylvania colony to start a new life. As he left his homeland, he remembered with pride and compassion the brave and loyal soldiers who fell on Culloden Moor.

    After a voyage of six to nine weeks, he landed at Philadelphia, a major port with about three hundred ships arriving each year. While in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Mercer read a widely circulated pamphlet “Plain Truth; or Serious Consideration on the Present State of the City of Philadelphia and Province of Pennsylvania,” published by Ben Franklin. Mercer, however, did not feel at ease among the Quakers be­cause their views about the military were alien to his ways. He therefore forged westward to the Allegheny Highlands of Pennsylvania, looking for Scot­-Irish settlements and a bit of Scotland. He settled halfway between what is now Mercersburg and Green­castle. Wherever Mercer went, he was most welcomed because he set bones and ministered to other injuries and ailments of the frontiersmen.

    The settlers on the frontier were alarmed when the French began an attempt in 1753 to connect Canada with Louisiana by building a string of forts across the Ohio Valley area. In 1754, the French built Fort Duquesne where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers meet •. The Duke of Cumberland appointed General Edward Braddock to command an expeditionary force to capture the fort. In June 1755, General Braddock with George Washington, a former officer of the Virginia Militia, as his aide-de-camp, began the l00-mile march to Fort Duquesne. On July 9, 1755, the British force was within six miles of the Fort, when the French and Indians opened fire on them from the woods, thus, beginning the disaster in which General Braddock re­ceived his mortal wound. The British retreated, send­ing their wounded back to Fort Cumberland. When Mercer heard the news of the disaster, he gathered up his supplies and equipment and headed for Fort Cumber­land to offer his services to Dr. James Craik, surgeon to the Virginia Militia.

    In the late summer of 1755, the Indians started raiding settlements on the frontier. Mercer's neighbors built private forts, one of which was near McDowell’s Mill. On March 6, 1756, while serving at McDowell's Fort as a volunteer to protect Cumberland County from Indian war parties, Mercer was commissioned a captain in the Pennsylvania Militia, thus began the official military service in the French and Indian War of an exceptionally qualified officer with medical knowledge and military experience. Mercer’s first com­mand was Fort Shirley, now the site of Shirleysburg in Huntington County. Within two weeks, Captain Mercer was made commanding officer of the Fort. In May, his company became part of the Second (Western) Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment. It later proved fortunate that John Scott joined Mercer's company as an ensign (second lieutenant) in the summer of 1756. Scott was described by James Burd as “a very pretty Young Gentleman,” who was “bred a Doctor” and "served his apprenticeship with one Doctor Mercer..”

    Captain Mercer's company was one of six companies in the expedition led by Colonel John Armstrong to capture the Indian village of Kittanning, the home village of Captain Jacob, the most-feared Delaware chief. Captain Mercer's men were in the thickest of the battle which began at daybreak on September 8, 1756, and ended at noon with the village destroyed, Captain Jacob dead, and the Indian stockpile of ammunition blown to bits. Seventeen men were killed, seven of whom were from Mercer's company. Captain Mercer's right arm which had been broken by a musket ball was set by Ensign Scott. Learning of an impending attack upon Fort Shirley, the men marched back toward the Fort. Captain Mercer and part of his company be­came separated from the main force and came upon a band of Indians. A skirmish ensued in which Ensign Scott and all of the others except Mercer were killed. Having lost his horse to the Indians, Mercer concealed himself in the woods until late afternoon. With a painful right arm and with anguish in his heart over the loss of Scott, Mercer weighed his chances of survival. He was wounded, in hostile Indian territory, a hundred miles from Fort Shirley, and without a hunting weapon, but he knew that he would become weaker if he delayed; so with the setting of the sun at his back, he began walking toward the Fort. He sub­sisted mostly on wild berries and fruit, but one day he dug two fresh water clams from a creek bed and another day he killed a rattlesnake. This staple item gave him the strength he needed to push on. On the afternoon of the tenth day after the skirmish, he reached the Fort only to find it abandoned by Provincial troops. After two days of rest, he was escorted by volunteer rangers to Fort Lyttelton where Colonel Armstrong's troops were quartered. Mercer became a celebrity as stories of his experiences were carried in newspapers throughout the colonies. His friends and associates learned that a Scotsman was not easily done in. After receiving medical treatment in Lancaster, he assumed command of the newly-constructed Fort Morris at Shippensburg in late 1756.

    During 1757, Mercer and his men were assigned to non-military duties. In early December of 1757, he was promoted to the rank of major. This rank did not hang long on his shoulders, for about six months later he was given command of the newly-formed 3rd Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment and was elevated to the rank of colonel on May 29, 1758. The colonial troops of Pennsylvania and Virginia were incorporated into the British forces in a new expedition against Fort Duquesne. In September, Colonel Mercer was placed in charge of Raystown, thirty miles north of Fort Cumber­land, where he was responsible for keeping supplies moving to the advance base of Loyalhanna. On September 15, General Forbes arrived in Raystown. Colonel George Washington arrived there on September 16, to confer with General Forbes. Mercer met Washington and the two became fast friends, each respecting the leadership qualities of the other. On November 25, spearheading troops led by Colonels Washington and Bouquet reached Fort Duquense but found it in smoldering ruins. The British rebuilt the Fort, renamed it Fort Pitt, and placed Colonel Mercer in command.

    In March 1760, Colonel Mercer commanded the troops at Fort Augusta, at that time the largest fort in Pennsylvania. During the summer, his men help build the Venango Trail, an important military thoroughfare.

In the fall of 1760, the Pennsylvania Assembly ended the Provincial Militia; and on January 15, 1761, Hugh Mercer was paid for his services. Becoming a civilian was not to his liking for he had found that his love of the military was as great as his love of medicine. At thirty-five, the redheaded Scotsman was without a dependable income or a family of his own.

    His Virginia friends suggested that Mercer open a medical practice in Fredericksburg, a town of about three thousand people located on the south side of the Rappahannock River; besides, if this failed, Mercer could join the Virginia Militia. Across the river from Fredericksburg were the village of Falmouth and the Ferry Farm, where Washington has spent his boy­hood.

    In Fredericksburg, Mercer became a good friend of George Weedon, who introduced Mercer to Isabella Gordon, his beautiful unattached sister-in-law. After a long courtship and along engagement, Hugh and Isabella were married. Anna, their first child, was her father's special joy. She grew up, married Robert Patton, and became the direct ancestor of General George Patton of World War II fame. Anna had four brothers; the young­est named Hugh was only five months old when his father died of wounds at the Battle of Princeton.

    Mercer’s  medical practice prospered. He invested his funds in land, owning at one time 900 acres of the fertile Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania. On May 28, 1771, Mercer and his partner Dr. Ewen Clements opened an apothecary shop, which still stands today in Fredericksburg. In 1772, Washington, who had built a house for his mother in Fredericksburg, wanted to sell the 600-acre Ferry Farm overlooking the lower end of Fredericksburg. Mercer wanted the farm and struck a deal with Washington for it.

    The Stamp Act, followed by the Townshend Act, alarmed the colonists while the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, flamed and inspired them. In Virginia, three regiments were formed; Hugh Mercer was appointed Colonel of the Third Regiment. In the summer of 1775, Mercer was in Williamsburg, training a part of the Virginia Army. Early in 1776, Commander­-in-Chief George Washington requested the Congressional Committee's approval for the formation of a Flying Camp (a mobile reserve army), which was to consist of ten thousand troops commanded by a Brigadier Genera1. Washington recommended Colonel Hugh Mercer, his friend and an experienced soldier. On June 14, 1776, Mercer received his commission from John Hancock, President of the Congress. General Mercer reported to Washington's Headquarters on July 3, 1776, one day prior to the sign­ing of the Declaration of Independence.

    In December of 1776, the American troops had re­treated across the Delaware River, seeking refuge in Pennsylvania. General Mercer, a firm believer in keeping the enemy busy, advised Washington that the best way to undo a British plan was to keep them so busy that they have no time to execute it. A surprise attack was planned for Christmas night against the Hessian Post at Trenton, New Jersey. The password chosen was "Victory or Death." Although Washington did not get his Army across the Delaware until three in the morning on December 26, his surprise attack met with success. Not one American was killed and only four were wounded in the engagement; the enemy losses were thirty-five killed, sixty wounded, and nine hundred forty-eight captured. As was the usual case, Mercer's men were in the thick of the battle. After­wards, Mercer praised his officers and men for their role in the defeat of the Hessians at Trenton.

    The Army's returned to Pennsylvania was but for two days of rest, for Washington was already planning to strike the enemy another blow. On December 30, Washington and his Continental Forces again crossed the Delaware to Trenton.

    The memory of Culloden and the butchery of the British against the Scotsmen in 1746 still played upon Mercer's thoughts. Although he had fought beside the British in the French and Indian War, he did not want to be conquered by them. He told Dr. Benjamin Rush that "he would cross the mountains and live among the Indians rather than submit to the power of Great Britain."

    On January 2, 1777, General Charles Cornwallis directed his men to march from Princeton to Trenton to destroy Washington's Army. Delayed by heavy fight­ing of Colonel Edward Hand's men, the enemy did not reach Trenton until nightfall. That night, Mercer con­vinced the council of war of the importance of an attack on the enemy's rear guard and advised the night march to Princeton. With Mercer leading the advance, Washington's men moved out at one o'clock on the morn­ing of January 3 and reached Princeton at daybreak. Mercer was directed to destroy the bridge that spanned Stony Brook at Worth's Mill. However, before Mercer could get to the Mill, his force was attacked by the 17th British Regiment, aided by the 55th Regiment. Mercer's men fought valiantly; but without bayonets on their guns, they retreated when the British charged them with bayonets in close combat. Mercer's horse was killed while he was attempting to rally his men. Although Mercer received- a blow on his head from the butt of a British musket, he fought on to the taunt of "Surrender, you rebel general." Receiving another blow to the head he fell and was bayoneted seven times by the Red Coats. Bleeding profusely from the wounds, he appeared to be dead. American reinforcements arrived to rout the enemy while another division de­feated the 40th British Regiment to capture Princeton. The ailing General Mercer was found by a militiaman and removed from the battlefield to the Thomas Clark farmhouse, where he was given a private room and was cared for by Hanna and Sarah Clark and a faithful black woman of the Clark household.

    Suffering severely from his wounds, Mercer ling­ered for nine days. On January 12, 1777, the valiant General Hugh Mercer died, thus ended the life of a Scotsman who had told the House of Burgesses of Virginia in 1775 that he would "serve his adopted country and the cause of liberty in any rank or station," to which he was appointed. Twenty thousand people attended his funeral and the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia erected a monument to his memory in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

    Commenting on the battle at Princeton in his report to Congress, General Washington noted that their success was “counterbalanced by the loss of the brave and worthy General Mercer.” The military historian Douglas Southall Freeman, evaluating the abilities of Washington's general officers, said if General Hugh Mercer had lived he “might have been his [Washington’s] peer and possibly his superior.”

    This county, now in West Virginia, is honored to have been named after this valiant warrior, America's unsung hero of the frontier and the American Revolution.

    (General Hugh Mercer: Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution by Frederick English is a comprehensive account of the life of General Hugh Mercer and was the basic source of information of this article.-­Jack Scott.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bancroft, Aaron. Life of George Washington. Boston: Phillips Sampson and Company, 1853.

Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America. New York: D. Appleton and Company, l889,V.

English, Frederick. General Hugh Mercer: Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution. Princeton, New Jersey: Historical Society of Princeton, 1975.

Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons, 1954, VI.

Howe, Barbara. "Discover the Splendours of Bonny Scotland," Dorset [Weymouth, England], Evening Echo, May 14, 1986.

McCormick, Kyle. The Story of Mercer County. Charleston, West Virginia: Charleston Printing Company, 1957.

Malone, Dumas (ed.). "Hugh Mercer," Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933, VII.

Parkman, Francis. Montcalm and Wolfe. Boston: Little and Brown Company, 1912, II.

Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee (eds.). “Hugh Mercer," The Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1917, XlII.