HUGH MERCER, MAJOR GENERAL IN THE AMERICAN ARMY. To fight In a just cause, and for our country's glory, Havard's Regulus. In the revolution which released our country from the domination of Great Britain, foreigners as well as native Americans, espoused the cause of the colonies. No examples are necessary to prove this:-we at once think of Steuben, of Lafayette,-of Kosciusko-of the many who left their native land to strike a blow for freedom in the Western World. Numerous were the Britons, also, who joined the standard of patriotism, even though it was raised in opposition to the lion of their own banner. Instances of two of the most celebrated of these, both for their noble qualities and early deaths,-for they occurred during an early period of the contest, we see in James Montgomery, and Hugh Mercer. The former we need not further mention in this place,but of the latter we will give a brief sketch. Hugh Mercer was born near Aberdeen in the north of Scotland, about the year 1723. He studied medicine, and as an assistant surgeon he was with the army of the Pretender, Charles Edward, at the field of Culloden. That battle was fought on the 16th April, 1746, and early in the year 1747, Mercer, fleeing from Scotland in consequence of his participation in the rebellion, landed at Philadelphia. Thirty years afterwards his corpse was interred in that place and finally, on the 26th November 1840, his remains, with all the 'pride, pomp, and circumstance, of glorious war,' were removed from their first resting place, and buried in the beautiful cemetry of Laurel Hill, near the same city. From Philadelphia Mercer proceeded to the frontier of Pennsylvania, and settled near the present village of Mercersburg, Franklin County. Here he remained engaged, it is believed, in farming occupations, until the commencement of the French and Indian war of 1755. After Braddock's defeat, the whole frontier of this province lay exposed to the attacks of the savages. The colonists were continually harassed by their incursions, and at last the Legislature raised a force of three hundred men, and gave the command to Colonel John Armstrong, under whom Mercer was appointed captain. The troops marched, in 1756, from Fort Shirley through a hostile country to the Alleghany river, and, unknown to the enemy, arrived at an Indian town called Kittaning, within twenty-five miles of Fort Du Quesne. At day-break the Americans attacked the place, and after a short action carried the town, and completely destroyed it. In this conflict Mercer was severely wounded in the right wrist and during the confusion which succeeded the taking of the Fort, he became separated from the rest of his company, and was obliged to set off alone, for the settlements. Becoming faint from loss of blood, and hearing the war-whoop of a body of Indians who approached, he secreted himself in the hollow trunk of a large tree. The savages came up, and stayed about the place some time, for the purpose of resting themselves, but soon continued their way. Mercer then pushed on, and, having reached the waters that emptied into the Potomac, he finally, after wandering in the woods for some weeks, arrived at Fort Cumberland. In 1758, the provincial forces were reorganized, and placed in a more effective condition. Mercer was promoted to the rank of lieutenantcolonel, and accompanied General Forbes in his expedition to Fort Du Quesne. He was left with two hundred men in charge of the fort, and maintained it until he was relieved, notwithstanding the difficulties which attended it. Washington-with whom Mercer first became acquainted in this expedition-wrote to Governor Fauquier that the men left in the fort were "in such a miserable condition, having hardly rags to cover their nakedness, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather in this inclement season, that sickness, death and desertion, if they are not speedily supplied, must destroy them." As soon as he was relieved, Mercer left the army, and repaired to Fredericksburg, in Virginia, where he continued to practise his profession. "The repose which the colonies enjoyed between the peace of 1763 and the beginning of the revolution, was short and restless. The young Nation lay, not in the slumber of exhaustion, but in the fitful sleep which the consciousness of a great futurity allows. It slept too with arms by its side, and there needed but the trumpet's feeblest note to arouse it to action. The involuntary concord of the Colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution is one of its most singular characteristics. It was a concord that transcended all mere political relations-it was beyond, and above all political union. It was the instinctive appreciation of common right, the quick sense of common injury. There seemed to be but one frame, and when the hand of tyranny was rudely laid on a single member, the whole system quivered beneath the contact, and braced itself to resistance."* None of the colonies was more distinguished n the contest, for firm resistance to the arbitrary measures of the mother country, than were Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Hancock and Adams, Morris and Hopkinson, Henry and Jefferson,—all were untiring in their efforts to arouse their countrymen. Nor were these alone: other men, less celebrated in the annals of our country, perhaps, but yet equally patriotic, aided them. Of these Mercer was one. On the 25th of April 1775, he * Reed's eulogy on General Mercer. |