the Assunpink Creek. His third brigade, which General Mercer commanded, turned off the road by which they had hitherto travelled, got into touch with Sullivan, and assailed the western skirts of the village"; and, again, he says, "Mercer's troops, who had penetrated within the confines of Trenton from the west, fired sharply, and close at hand, into the flank of the Hessians through the pales of a large tan-yard."'

Gen. Wilkinson narrates part of a conversation which took place between Gen. Mercer and others of the American army, not long before the battle of Princeton. He says "On the night of the 1st of January, Gen. Mercer, Colonel C. Bidde, and Doctor Cochran, spent the evening with Gen. St. Clair. Fatigued with the duties of the day, I had lain down in the same apartment, and my attention was attracted by the turn of their conversation, on the recent promotion of Captain William Washington, from a regiment of infantry to a major of cavalry. General Mercer expressed his disapprobation of the measure; at which the gentlemen appeared surprised, as it was the reward of acknowledged gallantry; and Mercer, in explanation, observed: 'We are not engaged in a war of ambition; if it had been so, I should never have accepted commission under a man who had not seen a day's service (alluding to the great orator, and distinguished patriot, Patrick Henry); and we serve not for ourselves but for our country, and every man should be content to fill the place in which he can be most useful. I know Washington to be a good captain of infantry, but I know not what sort of a major of horse he may make; and I have seen good captains make indifferent majors: for my own part, my views in this contest are confined to a single object, that is, the success of the cause, and God

1See Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, by Lossing, Vol. II, p. 19. Gen. Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 128. American Revolution, by Trevelyan, Part II, Vol. II, pp. 98, 101, 104 and 106. Life and Correspondence of Henry Knox by Drake, p. 134.

can witness how cheerfully I would lay down my life to secure it."'1

From good authority, we learn that Gen. Mercer suggested and advised the night march on Princeton. One writer, however, gives Gen. St. Clair the credit of proposing, in council, the movement. On the morning of the 3rd of January, 1777, Gen. Mercer, who with not more than 350 men was in the van of the American army, sighted a body of British troops not far from Princeton. These were marching to join Lord Cornwallis at Trenton. When the two corps recognized each other, they were less than 500 yards apart. An orchard lay midway between them, and each tried to reach it first. The Americans outstripped the enemy by about forty paces, and from behind a fence delivered the first fire. After three volleys had been exchanged, the British charged. And, with the exception of some of their officers, the Continentals broke and fled. Gen. Mercer, on foot, endeavored to rally his men. While attempting this a British soldier felled him to the ground with the but end of a musket. And, when they told him to surrender, calling him a rebel, he refused quarter, indignantly replying "I am no rebel." He arose and defended himself with his sword. But after a brief struggle, during which the enemy repeatedly bayoneted him, he was left for dead. Major Armstrong found him bleeding and insensible, and carried him off the field.2

At a farm-house, not far from the battle-field, he received medical attention and tender nursing. Gen. Washington sent

1See Gen. Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. I, foot-note, p. 146.

2See Appleton's Cyc. of American Biography, account of Mercer; Harper's Encyc. of U. S. History, p. 162; Dictionary of National Biography, by Lee, p. 264. Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol., pp. 140, 141 and 1142. Trevelyan's American Revolution, Part II, Vol. II, pp. 133 and 134; Johnston's Universal Cyc., account of Mercer. Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Lossing, Vol. II, p. 29 and foot-note. Washington and Generals of the Revolution, by A. Hart, p. 219.

his nephew and aid-de-camp, Col. George Lewis, to be with his friend. But on Jan. 12th, 1777, after having suffered severely, the patriot expired in the arms of Col. Lewis.1

1See Appleton's Cyc. of American Biography, account of Mercer; Mercersburg Academy Literary Magazine for May, 1902; Goolrick's Mercer, p. 55. See International Cyc. of American Biography, account of Mercer; Johnston's Universal Cyc., account of Mercer.

JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAROLINE, PROPHET OF SECESSION

John Taylor, of Caroline county, Virginia, was born in Orange county, Virginia, near the ancestral home of James Madison, in the year 1754. As a boy he associated with the future "Father of the Constitution"; but this association was cut short when Taylor, at the age of ten, like Washington and Robert E. Lee, was left an orphan. The change, however, brought its compensation, for the boy was adopted by his mother's brother, Edmund Pendleton, of Caroline county, already an eminent man in the colony.

Taylor was trained by private tutors in the home of his uncle and at William and Mary College at a time when the ablest teachers in America graced her lecture rooms. The men who taught Jefferson and Marshall and Monroe also directed the studies of young Taylor. Graduating in 1770, the young man "read" law in the office of his uncle at Bowling Green, receiving license to practice that profession in 1774. But Taylor's early manhood was not to be devoted to the hum-drum of the petit proceedings of his county court. His ardent nature and aspiring disposition, as well as his patriotism swept him into the reform movement which Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee had precipitated in 1766, when they almost forced upon the legislature the investigation which laid bare the corruption of the public life of Virginia at the time and broke down the powerful machine which Speaker Robinson had guided for twenty years.1

1 Moses Coit Tyler's Life of Patrick Henry, 56; Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1766-'9.

The fearless and even drastic action of Lee and Henry caused many conservative heads to wag in despair before the great rift with England came in 1775 and 1776. Pendleton himself thought his "friends" were going too far with poor John RobinNot so young Taylor, who was from youth fiercely patriotic and honest beyond compare for that age. The young advocate laid down his books to join the first brigade of Virginia troops under command of his favorite, Patrick Henry, of Hanover. A little later when the committee of safety maneuvered Henry out of his position as a military leader and gave the command to William Woodford, a subordinate officer in the same regiment, but a more experienced militiaman, Taylor remained faithful to the cause and saw service as quarter-master at Great Bridge, where the combined forces of Virginia and North Carolina gained a decided victory in December, 1775.1

Next Taylor became, by election of the Continental Congress, a major in the army under Washington. As such he took part in the campaigns about New York and Philadelphia, and he was at Valley Forge where a reorganization of the little army became necessary on account of the many desertions of private soldiers or the expiration of the terms of enlistment. He became so disgusted with the management of the army that he regretted ever joining it, and when the rearrangement of officers incident to the change made at Valley Forge left no place for him, he resigned his commission and returned to Virginia, refusing, like so many others, then and after to enlist as a private.

But Taylor's attitude was dictated largely by the views of Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry who at this time honestly believed Washington unfit for the command of the Continental army. He was desirous of bringing about Washington's retirement, though neither he nor his Virginia followers were support

1 Address of Dr. J. A. C. Chandler, published in Richmond Dispatch. July 8, 1900.