Paoli Battlefield Historical Park

Hugh Mercer Dies from Wounds Received in Battle of Princeton On this day in 1777, American Brigadier General Hugh Mercer dies from the seven bayonet wounds he received during the Battle of Princeton. Mercer's military service ranged over two continents and three armies. Born in Rosehearty, Scotland, Mercer studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and first served as an assistant surgeon in Bonnie Prince Charlie's army of 1745. After the Scots uprising against the Britis...h met its devastatingly bloody end at Culloden on April 16, 1746, Mercer returned to Aberdeenshire, where he spent a year in hiding before moving to Pennsylvania in March 1747. Once in America, Mercer enlisted in the army of the Hanoverian king, George III, whom he had sought to overthrow during the uprising in Scotland. During the Seven Years' War, he first served in General Edward Braddock's disastrous expedition of 1755, in which he was wounded, and then again with Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong's army at the raid of Kittanning in 1756. From 1760 to 1775, Mercer worked as an apothecary and practiced medicine in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the colonies took up arms against the British, he quickly returned to his rebellious roots. When first commissioned as a captain in the Continental Army, Mercer was charged with leading the Independent Company of the Town of Fredericksburg. He was soon made a lieutenant colonel, commanding a militia battalion. By December 1775, he was a full colonel and the first commander of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, with luminaries including James Monroe and John Marshall under his command. General George Washington personally requested Mercer's promotion to brigadier general in June 1776. Six months later, Mercer led a brigade during the Battle of Princeton. Although famed medic Benjamin Rush tended to Mercer's seven bayonet wounds, he could not save his medical colleague and fellow Patriot. Mercer died in the Thomas Clarke House on the eastern end of the battlefield, nine days after the battle ended in victory for the Patriots. See more

Jewish Patriot Joins Provincial Congress of South Carolina Francis Salvador, the first Jew to hold an elected office in the Americas, takes his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress on this day in 1775. Born in 1747, Salvador was the fortunate decedent of the very successful Joseph Salvador: businessman and leader of the Portuguese Sephardic Jewish community in Britain. Thanks to his sharp business instincts, Joseph Salvador had gained incredible wealth and prestige...Continue reading

North Carolina Governor Calls on Loyalists to Combat Rebels While in exile aboard a warship in Cape Fear, North Carolina's Royal Governor Josiah Martin issues a proclamation calling on the king's loyal subjects to raise an armed force to combat the rebels, raise the royal standard and restore the province to its former glorious freedom. These North Carolina Loyalists were to march to the sea, where General William Howe intended to provision them with arms and supplement their... numbers with troops from Boston and Ireland. Governor Martin's proclamation went on to say, every man who knows the values of freedom and blessings of a British subject, will join his heart and hand to restore to this country the most glorious, free and happy constitution and form of government. But North Carolina had seen little of such glorious, free, and happy government in the recent past. The backcountry uprising against corrupt gubernatorial appointees known as the Regulator movement had left North Carolinians all too familiar with warfare. Only 1,500 men answered Martin's call for a march to the sea. When they reached their destination, they were met not by Howe, but by Patriot troops. The Loyalists' commanding officer, General Donald McDonald, knew it would be suicide for his unarmed men to fight until they had acquired arms and reinforcements from the British, but he soon fell ill and Colonel Donald McLeod took command. McLeod chose to lead an assault on the Patriots and disaster ensued. Fifty of his men died and 880 were captured, while the Patriots lost only two of their number. See more

Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense On this day in 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet "Common Sense," setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. Originally published anonymously, "Common Sense" advocated independence for the American colonies from Britain and is considered one of the most influential pamphlets in America...n history. Credited with uniting average citizens and political leaders behind the idea of independence, "Common Sense" played a remarkable role in transforming a colonial squabble into the American Revolution. At the time Paine wrote "Common Sense," most colonists considered themselves to be aggrieved Britons. Paine fundamentally changed the tenor of colonists' argument with the crown when he wrote the following: "Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still." Paine was born in England in 1737 and worked as a corset maker in his teens and, later, as a sailor and schoolteacher before becoming a prominent pamphleteer. In 1774, Paine arrived in Philadelphia and soon came to support American independence. Two years later, his 47-page pamphlet sold some 500,000 copies, powerfully influencing American opinion. Paine went on to serve in the U.S. Army and to work for the Committee of Foreign Affairs before returning to Europe in 1787. Back in England, he continued writing pamphlets in support of revolution. He released "The Rights of Man," supporting the French Revolution in 1791-92, in answer to Edmund Burke's famous "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790). His sentiments were highly unpopular with the still-monarchal British government, so he fled to France, where he was later arrested for his political opinions. He returned to the United States in 1802 and died in New York in 1809. See more

President George Washington Delivers First State of the Union On this day in 1790, President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address to the assembled Congress in New York City. Washington began by congratulating you on the present favourable prospects of our public affairs, most notable of which was North Carolina's recent decision to join the federal republic. North Carolina had rejected the Constitution in July 1788 because it lacked a bill of rights.... Under the terms of the Constitution, the new government acceded to power after only 11 of the 13 states accepted the document. By the time North Carolina ratified in November 1789, the first Congress had met, written the Bill of Rights and dispatched them for review by the states. When Washington spoke in January, it seemed likely the people of the United States would stand behind Washington's government and enjoy the concord, peace, and plenty he saw as symbols of the nation's good fortune. Washington's address gave a brief, but excellent, outline of his administration's policies as designed by Alexander Hamilton. The former commander in chief of the Continental Army argued in favor of securing the common defence [sic], as he believed preparedness for war to be one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. Washington's guarded language allowed him to hint at his support for the controversial idea of creating a standing army without making an overt request. The most basic functions of day-to-day governing had yet to be organized, and Washington charged Congress with creating a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of our foreign affairs, a uniform rule of naturalization, and Uniformity in the Currency, Weights and Measures of the United States. After covering the clearly federal issues of national defense and foreign affairs, Washington urged federal influence over domestic issues as well. The strongly Hamilton-influenced administration desired money for and some measure of control over Agriculture, Commerce and Manufactures as well as Science and Literature. These national goals required a Federal Post-Office and Post-Roads and a means of public education, which the president justified as a means to secure the Constitution, by educating future public servants in the republican principles of representative government. See more