3 January 1777
Princeton: Mercer and Mawhood
At dawn the army reaches Stony Brook, two miles from Princeton, and turns off the road towards the undefended side of the town. Mawhood, marching the 17th and 55th Foot towards Trenton, sees the Americans and turns back. Hugh Mercer’s brigade of about 350 moves to cut him off, and the two meet in William Clarke’s orchard. After about ten minutes of firing a British bayonet charge overruns Mercer’s men, many of whom carry rifles that take no bayonet. Mercer is mortally wounded.
John Cadwalader’s 1,100 militia come up and most of them run. Washington arrives with the Virginia Continentals and Edward Hand’s riflemen, rallies the militia and leads the line forward, giving the order to fire at thirty yards. Daniel Hitchcock’s New Englanders threaten the British flank and charge, and Mawhood’s men break. Mawhood leads a bayonet charge through the Americans on the Post Road and escapes across the Stony Brook bridge.
The Battle of Princeton, painting by James Peale, about 1782, with Washington’s headquarters flagWikimedia Commons, James Peale, Public domain (The Battle of Princeton by James Peale.jpg)
In the town the 40th Foot and part of the 55th stand at a ravine, then behind a breastwork, and finally in Nassau Hall. Alexander Hamilton’s three guns fire on the building, the door is broken in, and 194 British soldiers surrender.
Sources
- David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (2004).
- Richard M. Ketchum, The Winter Soldiers (1973).
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