James Caldwell (April 1734 – November 24, 1781) was a Presbyterian minister who played a prominent part in the American Revolution.

While Caldwell was stationed with the army in Morristown, his wife Hannah was shot by a British light infantryman under disputed circumstances during the Battle of Connecticut Farms in what is now Union Township, an act which Union County immortalizes on their county seal to this day.

As British forces moved into the Connecticut Farms, Hannah Caldwell was shot through a window as she sat with her children on a bed.

Caldwell, who fought in the Battle of Springfield, was killed on November 24, 1781, by an American sentry in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, when he refused to have a package inspected.

The sentry, James Morgan, was hanged for murder on January 29, 1782 in Westfield, New Jersey, amid rumors that he had been bribed to kill the chaplain.