The Death of General Hugh Mercer at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777 was among the most politically charged battlefield deaths of the Revolutionary War — a Scottish-born physician who had served under Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden before emigrating and eventually dying on a New Jersey field, bayoneted by British troops who mistook him for Washington. His death was quickly mythologized by American propagandists, and John Trumbull's painted rendering of the scene became one of the defining images of Revolutionary martyrdom.
The Death of General Hugh Mercer at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777 was among the most politically charged battlefield deaths of the Revolutionary War — a Scottish-born physician who had served under Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden before emigrating and eventually dying on a New Jersey field, bayoneted by British troops who mistook him for Washington. His death was quickly mythologized by American propagandists, and John Trumbull's painted rendering of the scene became one of the defining images of Revolutionary martyrdom.