PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION.
VOLUME II.
BY BENSON J. LOSSING
1850.
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SUPPLEMENT.
VIII.
THE FOSTER-CHILD OF THE REPUBLIC.
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On the fifth of April, 1777, the Continental Congress, after resolving to erect appropriate monuments to the memory of Generals WARREN and MERCER, the first in Boston, and the second in Fredericksburg, Virginia, also resolved "That the eldest son of General Warren, and the youngest son of
General Mercer, be educated from this time at the expense of the United States." 1 The monuments have never been erected, but the promises to the living were faithfully performed. The "youngest son of General Mercer" was born about six months after the father made his will 2 and joined the army of patriots, and was only five months old when the hero fell in battle at Princeton. That son yet survives, bears the honored name of his father, and is justly entitled to the respect and veneration of every American, as the only foster-child of the republic among us.
At my earnest request, Colonel Mercer courteously consented to the publication of his portrait in the Field-Book. The following brief sketch of his life is from the pen of an affectionate friend:
Colonel Hugh Mercer was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in July, 1776. His mother was Isabella Gordon. She survived her martyred husband about ten years, and during that time made an indelible impression of her own excellence upon the character of her son. He was educated at William and Mary College during its palmiest days, while under the charge of Bishop Madison. For a long series of years he was colonel of the militia of his native county (Spottsylvania), and for twenty years he was an active magistrate. For five consecutive years Colonel Mercer represented his district in the Virginia Legislature, when, preferring the sweets of domestic life to the honors and turmoils of office, he declined a re-election. He was soon afterward elected president of the Branch Bank of Virginia, located at Fredericksburg, which station he has continued to fill until the present time. Through life Colonel Mercer has enjoyed good health, and has ever been distinguished for energetic and methodical business habits. He is now in the seventy-seventh year of his age; and at the "Sentry Box," his estate near Fredericksburg, he lives in dignified ease, one of the few remaining specimens of a Virginia gentleman of the old school. He is the last survivor of his father’s family, which consisted of four sons and a daughter.
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ENDNOTES
1 See Journals, iii., 98.
2 This signature of General Mercer I copied from his will, which is dated February 6, 1776; about eleven months previous to his death.
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