Background
James Caldwell was born in April 1734 in Charlotte County, Virginia, United States; the son of settler John Caldwell. The family, traditionally of Huguenot origin, had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland, and thence to America.
James Caldwell was born in April 1734 in Charlotte County, Virginia, United States; the son of settler John Caldwell. The family, traditionally of Huguenot origin, had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland, and thence to America.
Caldwell graduated at Princeton in 1759, and was ordained by the presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1761.
Caldwell was settled as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), New Jersey; his congregation included men of unusual prominence, Gov. Livingston, Col. Francis Barber, Boudinot, Dayton, and others.
In 1776 he was appointed chaplain of Dayton's New Jersey brigade, and for a time was assistant commissary-general, with headquarters at Chatham. Rewards were offered, so it is stated, for his capture, and he often went armed. His church was used as a hospital during the war, but on January 25, 1780 it was burned by a refugee. Caldwell's family, meanwhile, on account of exposure to attack had moved to the neighboring village of Connecticut Farms (Union).
The battle of Springfield took place (June 23) in which Caldwell--often known as the "Soldier Parson"--according to an often repeated story, urged his men to use the hymn-books in the neighboring church as extemporized wadding, exhorting them, "Now put Watts into them, boys. " The following year, at Elizabethtown Point, he was shot and killed by an American sentry. The two men were in dispute over a package which Caldwell carried, and various charges were made regarding the sentinel's conduct; he was eventually tried and executed for murder.
He belonged to the "muscular type" of Christianity. He was an eloquent preacher, and during the war was very active in his patriotism.
On March 14, 1763 he was married to Hannah Ogden. On June 7, 1780 Mrs. Caldwell was killed by a random bullet during Knyphausen's invasion.
