Hugh Mercer, an American revolutionary soldier, born in Scotland about 1720, died near Princeton, N. J., Jan. 12, 1777. He was educated as a physician, and served as a surgeon's assistant in the army of the young pretender at Culloden. He soon after settled in Virginia, and in 1755 served in the French and Indian war and volunteered in the expedition led by Braddock to Fort Duquesne. At the battle of Monongahela, July 9, he was wounded in the shoulder, and wandered alone through the wilderness to Fort Cumberland, 100 m. distant. He returned to his practice, and was residing in Fredericksburg at the outbreak of the revolution, when he was commissioned colonel of one of the regiments authorized in 1775 by the Virginia convention, and through the influence of Washington obtained the rank of brigadier general with the command of the flying camp organized in the spring of 1776. He accompanied Washington on his retreat through New Jersey, and rendered valuable assistance at the battle of Trenton. In the succeeding action at Princeton he led the vanguard, composed principally of militia. His men beginning to waver before the attack of the enemy, he made an energetic attempt to rally them, and was felled to the ground by a blow from the butt end of a musket.

Though surrounded by British soldiers, he rose and defended himself with his sword, refusing quarter, and after a brief struggle, in which he was repeatedly bayoneted, was left for dead upon the field. He was removed soon after the battle to a house in the neighborhood, where about a week afterward he died. His corpse was followed to the grave in Philadelphia by upward of 30,000 people. In November, 1840, a monument to his memory was dedicated at the Laurel Hill cemetery. Provision was made by congress for the education of his youngest son.