(From the Burlington (N. J.) Gazette.)
"I AM ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD TO-DAY."
The attention of many of our citizens has doubtless been arrested by
the appearance of an old Colored man, who might have been seen sitting
in front of his residence, in East Union Street, respectfully raising
his hat to those who might be passing by. His attenuated frame, his
silvered head, his feeble movements, combine to prove that he is
very aged; and yet comparatively few are aware that he is among the
survivors of the gallant army who fought for the liberties of our
country, "in the days which tried men's souls."
On Monday last we stopped to speak to him, and asked him how he was. He
asked the day of the month, and upon being told that it was the 24th
day of May, replied with trembling lips, "I am very old--I am a hundred
years old to-day."
His name is Oliver Cromwell, and he says he was born at the Black
Horse (now Columbus) in this county, in the family of John Hutchin.
He enlisted in a company commanded by Captain Lowery, attached to the
2nd New Jersey Regiment, under the command of Colonel Isaac Shreve.
He was at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth
and Yorktown, at which latter place, he told us, he saw the last
man killed. Although his faculties are failing, yet he relates many
interesting reminiscences of the Revolution. He was with the army at
the retreat of the Delaware, on the memorable crossing of the 25th of
December, 1776, and relates the story of the battles on the succeeding
days with enthusiasm. He gives the details of the march from Trenton
to Princeton, and told us, with much humor, that they "knocked the
British about lively" at the latter place. He was also at the battle
of Springfield, and says that he saw the house burning in which Mrs.
Caldwell was shot, at Connecticut Farms.