William Caldwell (ranger)

William Caldwell
Born	c. 1750 County Fermanagh, Ireland
Died	20 February 1822 Amherstburg, Upper Canada
Allegiance	Canada/United Kingdom
Unit	Butler's Rangers Campbell's Rangers
Commands	Caldwell’s Rangers
Battles / wars	Pennamite-Yankee War Dunmore's War American Revolutionary War
Spouse(s)	m. 1783 Suzanne Baby, daughter of Jacques Baby, dit Dupéront
Children	Billy Caldwell

William Caldwell (c. 1750 – 20 February 1822) was an Irish-born military officer and colonial official in the British Indian Department. He fought against the Patriots in the American Revolutionary War, especially with Butler's Rangers, based near upstate New York. After the war, together with other Loyalists, Caldwell was granted land in Upper Canada (now Ontario). He helped found the town of Amherstburg, near the mouth of the Detroit River. He also served as a lieutenant colonel in the War of 1812, and as the Superintendent of Indians in the Western Department. He was a merchant and farmer in Amherstburg.

Early life

Caldwell is believed to be the son of William and Rebecka Caldwell of County Fermanagh, Ireland. As a young man, he immigrated to Pennsylvania in the Thirteen Colonies in 1773.

Military career

His initiation into combat was in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania when Pennsylvanians fought against Connecticut settlers. In 1774, he served in Lord Dunmore's War. In 1775, he was appointed an officer in the British Indian Department.

With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Caldwell served with Lord Dunmore's forces in the attack on Norfolk, Virginia, in 1776, and was injured. After recovering from wounds, Caldwell went to Fort Niagara where he was appointed captain in Butler's Rangers on 24 December 1777.

In the ranger campaigns, Caldwell was "a very active Partisan", according to the commandant of Fort Niagara. Leading his troops into battle, he exhibited a ruthlessness that the Americans would never forget. On 3 July 1778, he was present at the Battle of Wyoming in Pennsylvania. In September 1778 he led an attack on German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley of central New York, together with Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant leading his Iroquois forces. They destroyed all of the buildings and grain in the area, and killed and captured much livestock, leaving the settlers struggling through the winter.

Based out of Detroit, Caldwell led a force of about 50 rangers in many battles and expeditions in Kentucky and the Ohio Country. In 1782, he led his rangers and Shawnee allies in a victory over the Crawford expedition; they went on to lose a battle at Bryan Station and then succeed at the Battle of Blue Licks.

After the war, Caldwell settled in the Detroit region that became Upper Canada. Together with other Loyalists, he was granted land in what became Amherstburg on the Detroit River and became a merchant. His partner was another Loyalist, Matthew Elliott.

During the Northwest Indian War, he led a company (80–150 men) of Canadian militia alongside Northwestern Confederacy Natives against advancing American troops at Fallen Timbers, the final engagement of the war.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Caldwell was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and given command of a group of between 40 and 50 volunteers from the Canadian militia, called Caldwell's Rangers (or the Western Rangers). He fought at the Battle of the Thames and the Battle of Longwoods, among many other actions. He gained commissions for all his sons in the regular army.

After the death of Matthew Elliot in April 1814, Caldwell was appointed Superintendent of Indians in the Western District, with his son Billy as his second-in-command.

William Caldwell died on 20 February 1822 in Amherstburg, Upper Canada.

Marriage and family

According to traditional belief, while stationed at Fort Niagara, Caldwell had a relationship with a Mohawk woman, the name of whom is unknown. She is sometimes called the daughter of a Mohawk chief named 'Rising Sun', or, herself being named 'Rising Sun' though neither claim seems to be based on a veritable source. They named their son, born about 1782, Billy Caldwell. The boy was raised with his mother's people for his early adolescence due to his father's absence.

In 1783 the senior Caldwell married Suzanne Baby, daughter of Jacques Baby dit Dupéron. Together they had eight children, five sons and three daughters. In 1789 Caldwell brought his son Billy into his family and gave him an education. Billy became William Caldwell's second-in-command in the British Indian Department.

Billy later lived in the United States after 1818, where he was an early and renowned settler of Chicago. He supposedly married the sister of a Potawatomi chief named 'Yellow Head' not to be confused with Ozaawindib, or Tête Jaune, two near contemporaries whose names translate to the same. He was seemingly a respected citizen of Illinois, serving as Justice of the peace for Chicago in 1826, alongside other well-known early settlers such as John Kinzie, and Jean Baptiste Beaubien. The brother of the latter, Mark Beaubien, ran Chicago's Sauganash Hotel, named in honor of Billy. 'Sauganash' was the Potawatomi word for Englishman, or 'one who speaks English' and by this name the younger Caldwell was also known. He became an elected chief of the Council of Three Fires and aided in the signing of numerous land treaties, such as the 1829 Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. For this he was given, by the Federal government of the United States, 2.5 square miles of land or, two and a half Sections, above the Old Indian Boundary Line established by the Treaty of St. Louis (1816), on the North Branch of the Chicago River. He led the Potawatomi to Iowa in 1835, in compliance with the Treaty of Chicago. Caldwell's leadership likely saved his people from suffering a forced removal at the hands of militia such as what the Indiana Potawatomi experienced, now known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death. Upon their withdrawal from Chicago in 1835, the Potawatomi under Caldwell did a war dance procession down today's Lake Street. They would have passed right by the hotel named for him, itself allowed to remain. Caldwell's band settled in today's Council Bluffs, Iowa, in an area called 'Caldwell's Camp'. He would die there in 1841, not twenty years after his father William.

Further reading

• Horsman, Reginald. Matthew Elliott, British Indian Agent. Detroit, 1964.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online