Now it was General Mercer’s job to cut off Cornwallis’ route to Princeton and on to New Brunswick across the Stony Brook Bridge. Unknown to him, however, another British force was also on its way to the bridge.

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After leaving the 40th Regiment of Foot to garrison Princeton, Colonel Mawhood had set out with 800 soldiers of the 17th and 55th regiments to join Cornwallis at Trenton. There were 276 troops of the 17th Foot with him when he reached Stony Brook Bridge at about 8 a.m.; the rest trailed a mile behind. Mawhood had expected an unimpeded march to Trenton, but he looked back and noticed what seemed to be a patrol of between 350 and 400 men who were not his own. A moment of fear and panic set in–how did they get behind him? Quickly he turned his troops around and ordered them back across the bridge. The high ground, not Trenton, was now his primary objective.

Mercer, too, realized the hill’s importance and led his men there. The race turned into a confused melee as the two forces confronted one another at Clark’s Orchard. In the first exchange of gunfire, 26-year-old Captain William Leslie, nephew of General Leslie, was struck in the left breast and side while leading a company of the 17th Foot. He died moments later in the arms of his servant, Peter MacDonald, who hastily put his body in a baggage wagon.

After several more volleys, the 17th Foot fixed bayonets. Only about 20 of Mercer’s militiamen carried muskets that mounted bayonets, and most had rifles that were slower to load than smoothbore muskets. In consequence, they fell back before the intimidating British rush. ‘No,’ Mercer ordered. ‘Forward! Forward!’ A bayonet pierced his chest, then another and another. A dozen blows or more, and the general slumped down near the hill that would later bear his name.

At that point, some of Colonel Cadwalader’s troops came up over Orchard Hill, but the more experienced British pushed them back too, leaving bayonet-pierced bodies in their wake. A rout of the Americans seemed to be in the offing, but then their commander suddenly appeared on the scene. While Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene rallied and reorganized his troops, Washington advanced to within 30 yards of the British line. A round was fired, and suddenly the Redcoats loosed a full volley of musket balls. When the smoke cleared, however, still atop his fine horse was the tall, lean figure of General Washington. ‘Charge!’ he ordered, ‘Charge them! Pull up! Pull up!’

The Patriots regrouped, and soon it was the Redcoats who fell back. Remembering the enemy bugler’s call on Harlem Heights, Washington pressed forward, crying out, ‘It’s a fine fox hunt, boys!’

Just to the north, Maj. Gen. John B. Sullivan was busy engaging the British 40th and 55th regiments of Foot. After successfully outflanking their defenses with two regiments of his own at Frog Hollow, he managed to push the Redcoats back toward Princeton, where they took cover in and around Nassau Hall, part of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Captain Alexander Hamilton led the firing upon the hall, which was bombarded with artillery. One cannonball tore the head off a picture of King George II. At that point, the British surrendered, and 194 Redcoats became American prisoners.

Mawhood realized that his only chance was to break through to Trenton. With bravado still admired in England to this day, the colonel led the 17th Foot in a bold charge in defiance of the numbers against him and managed to escape. Washington followed him closely for a time, capturing several more prisoners, but he knew it was only a matter of time before Cornwallis would show up with fresh Regulars. Wisely, he had his men destroy Stony Brook Bridge–and none too soon, for Cornwallis arrived just as the Continental rear guard was marching out.

‘My original plan when I set out from Trenton was to have pushed on to Brunswick,’ Washington later explained to Hancock, ‘but the harassed state of our own troops (many of them having had no rest for two nights and a day) and the danger of losing the advantage we had gained by aiming at too much, induced me, by the advice of my officers, to relinquish the attempt. But in my judgment, six or eight hundred fresh troops upon a forced march would have destroyed all their stores and magazines, taken (as we have since learned) their military chest containing 70,000 pounds, and put an end to the war.’ The truth of that supposition will never be known for certain.

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