SECOND TO NO MAN BUT THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF: Hugh Mercer: American Patriot

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Mercer was not a native of the American colonies. He fled from Scotland in 1746 after the Battle of Culloden and settled on the Pennsylvania frontier to avoid possible arrest for his participation at Culloden. When the French and Indian War erupted nearly a decade later, Mercer's neighbors tapped him to command a company of militia. Mercer quickly rose in the ranks and eventually commanded a battalion of Pennsylvania provincial soldiers as well as the garrison at Fort Pitt (captured Fort Duquesne).

After seven years of military service, Mercer was discharged from the Pennsylvania Regiment in 1761 and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He married, raised a family, and established a very successful medical practice. When the decade long political dispute with Great Britain turned violent in 1775, Virginia's political leaders considered Hugh Mercer for command of one of Virginia's two regiments of regular troops.

After two close ballots, the Virginia Convention opted instead to appoint Virginia natives Patrick Henry and William Woodford to command. Mercer was selected a few months later to command the 3rd Virginia Regiment, but six months after his appointment the Continental Congress elevated him to the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army and he left Virginia to assume command of the newly formed Flying Camp in New Jersey.

While he served in the northern theater, Mercer played a critical role in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, two battles that helped save the American army and American independence. Sadly, General Mercer did not live to see the victorious end to America's struggle; he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. Congress honored Mercer with a statue that still stands in Fredericksburg and several townships and counties have honored his memory by taking his name.

This book chronicles Mercer's life and service and in doing so validate the observation of Major James Wilkinson, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, who wrote that: In General Mercer we lost a chief, who for education, experience, talents, disposition, integrity, and patriotism, was second to no man but the commander in chief, and was qualified to fill the highest trusts of the country.