Reposted from battlefields.org
Hannah Caldwell of Connecticut Farms, New Jersey was a civilian casualty of the American Revolution. She died instantly when a British soldier fired into her home on June 7, 1780. Recognized as a patriot by the Daughters of the American Revolution, her gravestone reads, "was killed at Connecticut Farms by a shot from a British Soldier. Cruelly sacrificed by the enemies of her husband and her country.”
Hannah Ogden was born in Newark, New Jersey and moved to Elizabethtown in 1763 when she married the Reverand James Caldwell. James became the pastor at First Presbyterian Church, and the couple eventually had many children. Hannah raised her family, supported her husband’s work, and was active in the social life of the community.
Then came the American Revolution. James was an outspoken patriot and put his religious and political beliefs into practice as Chaplain of Colonel Elias Dayton’s 3rd New Jersey Regiment. He gained a reputation as “the fighting parson,” with a bounty on his head. The Revolution continued to hit close to home, as New Jersey towns and farms became a crossroads for patriot, British, and Hessian troops. Wanting to keep Hannah and his young family safe from enemy troops pursuing General Georg Washington’s Continental Army, James moved Hannah out of their home in Elizabethtown to safety in New Providence. James correctly guessed he would be a target of British ire. When the Caldwells returned to Elizabethtown a few months later, they discovered the British had ransacked and burned the First Presbyterian Church. James moved Hannah and the children to a parsonage in nearby Connecticut Farms.
By 1780, Washington’s beleaguered army was under half its fighting strength—making it a prime target for the enemy to strike while encamped at Morristown. Hannah and her family lived just 14 miles away in Connecticut Farms, and their proximity to Washington’s main encampment put them in the direct warpath of the advancing enemy. On June 8, 1780, a Hessian and British force under Wilhelm von Knyphausen reached Connecticut Farms. Knowing the coming danger and advance of Knyphausen’s troops, James took most of his family to safety while Hannah, determined to save the home, stayed behind with their 9-month-old baby and 4-year-old son, believing that as a woman, civilian, and mother, she would be safe from any violence or raiding party.
After a battle that waged for three hours, Knyphausen’s troops repulsed a combined force of Continental Army and militia. Victorious, at least for the moment, Knyphausen began a raid on the civilian homes in the area. At some point during or after the battle and according to eyewitness accounts, a British soldier passed by the window of the Caldwell parsonage and fired into the home. Hannah was hit in the chest and died instantly.
Hannah’s tragic death was widely politicized, memorialized, and mythologized. Was her death the result of an accident, or was it willful murder to punish her husband, “the fighting parson?”
While the circumstances surrounding her death are still heavily debated, her tombstone testifies that Hannah "was killed at Connecticut Farms by a shot from a British Soldier. Cruelly sacrificed by the enemies of her husband and her country.”
