Editing Mercer County, New Jersey (section)

==Etymology==
The county was named for [[Continental Army]] [[Hugh Mercer|General Hugh Mercer]], who died as a result of wounds received at the [[Battle of Princeton]] on January&nbsp;3, 1777.<ref>[[Joseph Nathan Kane|Kane, Joseph Nathan]]; and Aiken, Charles Curry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yC9vFvCuW84C&pg=PA201 ''The American Counties: Origins of County Names, Dates of Creation, and Population Data, 1950-2000''], p. 201. [[Scarecrow Press]], 2005. {{ISBN|0810850362}}. Accessed January 21, 2013.</ref> Continental Army Brigadier General [[Hugh Mercer]] served in the Continental Army during the [[Battle of Trenton]] and the Battle of Princeton in 1777. A Scotsman that fled to British North America after the failed [[Jacobite Rebellion]], he worked closely with George Washington in the American Revolution. On January 3, 1777, Washington's army was en route to Princeton, New Jersey. While leading a vanguard of 350 soldiers, Mercer's brigade encountered two British regiments and a mounted unit. A fight broke out at an orchard grove and Mercer's horse was shot from under him. Getting to his feet, he was quickly surrounded by British troops who mistook him for George Washington and ordered him to surrender. Outnumbered, he drew his saber and began an unequal contest. He was finally beaten to the ground, bayoneted repeatedly (seven times), and left for dead. Legend has it that a beaten Mercer, with a bayonet still impaled in him, did not want to leave his men and the battle and was given a place to rest on a white oak tree's trunk, and those who remained with him stood their ground. The [[Mercer Oak]], against which the dying general rested as his men continued to fight, appears on the county seal and stood for 250 years until it collapsed in 2000.<ref>[http://www.visitprincetonbattlefield.org/visit-princeton-battlefield/princeton-battlefield-state-park/mercer-oak/ Princeton Battlefield's Mercer Oak] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121034122/http://www.visitprincetonbattlefield.org/visit-princeton-battlefield/princeton-battlefield-state-park/mercer-oak/ |date=January 21, 2014 }}, Princeton Battlefield's Clarke House Volunteers. Accessed October 6, 2013. "This white oak later became the symbol for Mercer County (named for the general), Princeton Township, the NJ Green Acres program, and other agencies. The approximately 250-year-old tree collapsed of its own weight March 3, 2000."</ref>