The Mercer Oak

Born in 1726, Hugh Mercer was a soldier who worked his way up the ranks to become a Brigadier General in the Continental Army and it was Mercer who accompanied General George Washington to New York and New Jersey in 1776. Following the Battle of Trenton, Mercer led troops to Princeton where he was met by a large number of British soldiers in what would be the Battle of Princeton. During the skirmish, Mercer was wounded after taking a British bayonet to the chest and his soldiers moved him to the large oak tree on the field. While the Continental Army would succeed in driving the British troops out of Princeton, General Mercer died from his injury on January 12, 1777. 

The oak tree that General Mercer would lay dying under has been dubbed the Mercer Oak and has a history plagued by disaster. After a lightning strike and numerous wind storms, the tree collapsed in 2000. Standing in its place today is a sapling, planted in 2001, that was grown from an acorn of the original Mercer Oak. The legacy of Hugh Mercer lives on as the Mercer Oak has become a symbol of Princeton, memorialized on the town’s logo.

Resources for Further Research:

1. The Princeton Battlefield Society
2. The Historical Marker Database
3. American Battlefield Trust
4. “Remembering the Mercer Oak, 20 Years Since Mercer Oak Fell From Wind Storm” (MidJersey News)
5. From storied Mercer Oak, a sapling grows by Jane Karlicek (Princeton Packet, 2000)
6. Articles from the Papers of Princeton database:
   • Oak Tree Planting (Town Topics, 1991)
   • From One Mayor to Another (Town Topics, 1992)
   • The Heart of Oak and the Oak Tree Should be Combined Princeton’s New Image (Town Topics, 1996)
   • Rooted in History (Daily Princetonian, 2000)
   • From Battle Road to the Battlefield (Town Topics, 2001)
7. Titles in Princeton Public Library’s collection