General Hugh Mercer
(1726-1777)

Died aged c. 51

Hugh Mercer (16 January 1726 – 12 January 1777) was a Scottish-born American military officer and physician who participated in the Seven Years' War and Revolutionary War. Born in Pitsligo, Scotland, he studied medicine in his home country and served with the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie, participating in the Battle of Culloden in 1746. With the failure of the Jacobite rising, Mercer escaped to Pennsylvania. There, he served alongside a young George Washington in the British colonial forces during the French and Indian War, and was seriously wounded during an engagement in September 1756. Mercer settled in Virginia, continued his work as a physician, and later became a brigadier general in the American Continental Army and close friend to George Washington. Mercer died as a result of wounds received at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, becoming a fallen hero and rallying symbol of the American Revolution.

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