Oliver Cromwell (May 24, 1752 – January 1853) was an African-American soldier, who served in the American Revolutionary War.
[2] Private Cromwell served in several companies of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment between 1777 and 1783, seeing action at the battles of Trenton (1776), Princeton (1777), Short Hills (1777), Brandywine (1777), Monmouth (1778), and at the final siege of Yorktown (1781).
Although he was unable to read or write, local lawyers, judges, and politicians came to his aid, and he was granted a pension of $96 a year.
He left behind several children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but there was no one to raise a marker over the grave of the private.
He lived to be 100 years old, outliving 14 of his children and 1 of his grandchildren, and is buried in the cemetery of the Broad Street Methodist Church.