1814, assigned to the corps of artillery, and during the war with Great Britain was engaged in garri- son and recruiting service. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, 20 April, 1818, and with thirty soldiers escorted Gen. James Miller to Eastport, Me., where the British garrison of Fort Sullivan was relieved, and Merchant was left in command. At the reor- ganization of the army, on 1 June, 1821, he was retained as 1st lieutenant in the 2d artillery, and on 20 April, 1828, received the brevet of captain for faithful service for ten years in one grade. During the disturbances on the borders of Canada in 1838-'41 he was stationed at northern frontier posts, and during the latter part of the war with Mexico he was in command of Fort Brown, on the Rio Grande. On 14 Feb., 1849, he was promoted major of the 3d artillery. He was with his regi- ment in December, 1853, on board the steamer " San Francisco " when she was wrecked off Cape Hatteras, and suffered from the effects for several years. On 10 June, 1857, he was promoted lieu- tenant-colonel of the 3d artillery, which he rejoined in California, remaining there until 1861. On 27 Aug. of that year he was promoted colonel of the 4th artillery, and he was subsequently placed in command of Fort Washington, on the Potomac, until he was retired from active service, 1 Aug., 1863. Notwithstanding his retirement, he remained on active duty at Bedloe's island. New York har- bor, and on courts-martial until 1869. On 13 March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier- general " for long and faithful service in the army." At the time of his death he was the senior ofRcer of the army in date of original commission, and president of the Association of graduates of West Point. — His son Charles Greorge, soldier, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 16 March, 1821 ; d. in East Pascagoula, Miss., 4 Sept., 1855, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1843, and assigned to the 8th infantry. He was made 2d lieuten- ant, 9 May 1846, brevet 1st lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Molino del Rey," 8 Sept., 1847, brevet captain for Chapul- tepec, 13 Sept., 1847, and 1st lieutenant. 2 Aug., 1848. His death was caused by a wound that he received in Indian hostilities in Florida. — Another son, Clarke, naval officer, b. in Savannah, Ga., 20 Sept., 1836, was graduated at the U. S. naval academy in 1857, and promoted successively passed midshipman, 25 June. 1860, master, 24 Oct., 1860, lieiitenant, 18 April, 1861, and lieutenant- commander, 3 March, 1865. In the early part of the civil war he was stationed at the Washington navy-yard and attached to the " Pensacola," and during the latter part was acting executive offi- cer of the " Roanoke " in James river. Just as the war was closing he was ordered to the naval academy as executive officer of the " Constitution " and " Santic." He resigned on 10 Aug., 1865, and engaged in mercantile business in Philadelphia. MERCIER, Houore, Canadian statesman, b. in Quebec, 15 Oct., 1840; d. in Montreal, 30 Oct., 1894. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in 1867. He was editor of '• Le Courrier de St. Hyacinthe " from 1862 till 1864, and also in 1866, and, after sitting in the Dominion par- liament for Rouville from 1872 till 1874, was elected to the legislative assembly of Quebec as solicitor- general in the Joly government in May, 1879, and held this portfolio till the resignation of the gov- ernment in October of the same year. He was re- elected in 1881 by acclamation, and again in De- cember, 1886, and, on the resignation of the Tail- Ion administration, formed an administration and became attorney-general in January, 1887.
MERCIER, Louis Charles Antoine, French
engineer, b. in Melun in 1744: d. in Rouen in
1812. He was the son of a director of the mint,
entered the marine guards when scarcely fifteen
years old, and was employed for several years
in Canada and Martinique. When the war of
American independence began he asked permis-
sion to serve as a volunteer, and, coming in 1776
to this country, was employed as an artillery
officer, directing the batteries during the siege of
Savannah by Count d'Estaing in 1779. He was
reinstated as major in the French army, and, after
being employed for several months to rebuild the
fortifications of the island of St. Eustache, returned
again to the American continent in 1780 and
took part under Lafayette in the Virginian cam-
paign, being wounded at the head of his regiment
at Yorktown. After the conclusion of peace in
1783 he was appointed director of the fortifications
of Santo Domingo. He afterward became assist-
ant commander of the artillery in the navy-yard
of Brest, but during the reign of terror he came
to Louisiana and was a professor of mathematics
in New Orleans till 1803, when he was commis-
sioned by the first consul to study the water-front
of the colony, and forward plans for the protec-
tion of the coast. The cession of Louisiana to the
United States brought the mission to an end. but
Mercier had meanwhile become interested in it,
and, having been left a small fortune by a relative,
continued it at his own expense. He devoted five
years to the exploration of the country as far
north as Oregon, west to California, and east to
Texas, sailed for 900 miles on Mississippi and Mis-
souri rivers, made a thorough study of the hy-
drography of the country that is watered by the
Lafourche, Atchafalaya, Black, and Washita rivers,
and also took barometric levels along Perdicco
river, the former boundary of Louisiana. He pre-
sented to the U. S. authorities in 1807 plans for
the drainage of flooded lands in the delta of the
Mississippi. Returning to France in 1808, he set-
tled in Rouen. He published " Memoire sur les
vapeurs de I'atmosphere le long du cours du Mis-
sissipi" (Paris, 1808); "Carte du bassin du Mis-
sissipi " (1808) ; " Systeme hydrographique de la
Louisiane " (Rouen, 1809) ; " Carte du delta du
Mississip' " (1810) ; "Etudes topographiques, geo-
graphiques, hydrographiques, geologiques et geo-
desiques sur la Louisiane" (1811); and "Tableau
du climat de la Louisiane, et de son influence sur
les Europeens et les Creoles " (1812).
MERCUR, Ulysses, jurist, b. in Towanda, Bradford co., Pa., 12 Aug., 1818 ; d. in Wallingford, Delaware co.. Pa., 6 June, 1887. He was a son of Henry and Mary Watts Mercur. During his early life he worked on his father's farm and afterward spent three years in his brother's store as a clerk. He was graduated at Jefferson college in 1841 with the first honors of his class, studied law under Thomas T. McKennan and Edward Overton, was admitted to the Bradford county bar, and soon achieved a high reputation. In 1861 he
was a presidential elector on the Lincoln ticket. When David Wilmot was chosen U. S. senator, he resigned as president judge of the 13th district and Mr. Mercur was appointed as his successor. At the next election he was chosen for ten years, but he resigned in 1865 and was four times successively elected to congress. He was active in the legislation of the war and of the reconstruction period. During the eighth year of his term in the house he was chosen a justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and he resigned from congress, 2 Dec, 1872. On 1 Jan., 1883, he became un-
