Hugh Mercer – 1726-1777

Mercer was born in Scotland and fought at the bloody Battle of Culloden Moor (1746), then fled to America, where he practiced as a physician. Mercer fought in the French and Indian War and belonged to the same Masonic lodge as George Washington. The two became friends, and, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, Mercer first served in the militia and then in the Continental Army. He was Washington’s close comrade and distinguished himself particularly during the crossing of the Delaware and Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. His death at the Battle of Princeton, which followed the triumph at Trenton, made Mercer a martyr of the revolution and a symbol of heroic sacrifice for liberty.