Mercer, Hugh

Related Category: U.S. History: Biographies

(mûr´sər), c.1725–1777, American Revolutionary general, b. Aberdeen, Scotland. A physician, he was a surgeon in the forces of Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender) and after the defeat at Culloden (1746) emigrated to America. In the French and Indian Wars, Mercer served with Edward Braddock (1755) and John Forbes (1758) in their expeditions against Fort Duquesne. Mercer moved to Virginia, and, at the start of the American Revolution, helped organize the Virginia militia. He fought at Trenton (1776) and was mortally wounded at Princeton (Jan. 3, 1777).