The Doctor Who Died Fighting

Hugh Mercer had seen battle before Princeton. He had fought at Culloden in 1746, on the losing side, a young Scottish surgeon following Bonnie Prince Charlie's doomed rebellion against the British Crown. After the defeat, Mercer emigrated to Pennsylvania, practiced medicine in Mercersburg, and built a quiet life far from European wars.

Then he chose to fight the British again.

By January 1777, Mercer was fifty years old and a brigadier general in the Continental Army. When Washington's night march from Trenton brought the army to the outskirts of Princeton, Mercer's brigade was sent forward to secure a bridge over Stony Brook and cut the road to Trenton.

Instead, Mercer's men collided with Mawhood's British regulars on William Clark's farm. The fight happened fast, in an apple orchard, in the early morning cold. The British fixed bayonets. Mercer's men, many armed with rifles that carried no bayonets, tried to hold. The line broke.

Mercer was pulled from his horse. British soldiers, reportedly mistaking him for Washington because of his officer's coat, demanded his surrender. He refused and fought with his sword until he was bayoneted seven times and left for dead.

He was not dead. He was carried to the Clarke farmhouse, where doctors treated him for nine days. Benjamin Rush visited and recorded the scene. Mercer knew he was dying. He asked about the battle's outcome and reportedly expressed satisfaction that the army had won.

He died on January 12. A man who had fled one failed revolution lived long enough to help save another.

The Mercer Oak, the tree near where he fell, stood on the battlefield until 2000. A descendant grows in its place.