Caldwell, James

Caldwell, James, a Presbyterian minister, was born -in Charlotte county, Va., 1734, graduated at Princeton in 1759, and in 1761 was ordained pastor of 'the Presbyterian church of Elizabethtown, N. J. At the Revolution he entered with spirit into the controversy, and was soon branded as a rebel; and on the formation of the Jersey brigade; he was at once selected as its chaplain. Throughout the war he suffered severely; toward the close of it, his church was burnt and his wife murdered by the enemy. The people reposed great confidence in him, and his labors, counsels, and exhortations were of great assistance to the cause he had espoused. This honored patriot was killed in 1781, at Eliiabethport, by a drunken soldier named Morgan, who was tried, convicted, and hung upon the charge of murder. Caldwell was a man of unwearied activity and of wonderful powers of endurance. As a preacher he was uncommonly eloquent and pathetic. — Sprague, Annals, 3:222.