Background
He was born on 8 August 1751 to David Leslie, 6th Earl of Leven and Wilhelmina Nisbet.
He was born on 8 August 1751 to David Leslie, 6th Earl of Leven and Wilhelmina Nisbet.
He was mortally wounded during the Battle of Princeton and buried with military honours by American General George Washington at Pluckemin, New Jersey. He was the nephew of General Alexander Leslie. In 1771, he joined the 42nd Highlanders.
He next switched to the 17th Foot and was promoted to lieutenant in 1773, and to captain in 1776.
Sent to America in 1776, he served in the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Fort Washington. On 3 January 1777, during the Battle of Princeton, he was one of many who died.
The British put his body in a wagon, that was later taken by the Americans. The following day, Rush, while treating the wounded at Princeton, learned of Leslie"s death from British Captain John McPherson.
In The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777 the painter John Trumbull displays several events of the battle.
At the centre, General Hugh Mercer, with his dead horse beneath him, is mortally wounded. At the left, Captain Daniel Neil is bayoneted against a cannon. At the right, Leslie is shown mortally wounded.
In the background, Washington and Rush enter the scene.
After the war, Doctor Benjamin Rush placed a gravestone in Leslie"s memory at the Pluckemin graveyard. As the original had crumbled, a replacement with the same inscription was erected c. 1836 by Professor Ogilby of Rutgers University at the request of David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven.
His gravestone is honoured by both British and Scottish flags.
