William Caldwell was born in Northern Ireland somewhere around the year 1750, immigrating to Pennsylvania in 1773. He served with distinction in Dunmore’s war and as a result was given a commission in the British Indian Department in 1775.At the onset of the American Revolution, he stayed with the British and fought against the Americans under Lord Dunmore.

In 1777 he was appointed Captain in Butler’s Rangers out of Fort Niagara where he began a long association with the Iroquois War-Chief Joseph Brant. The Rangers fought alongside Native forces in many engagements. After the war he helped to found the town of Amherstburg in Upper Canada with land grants he received from the crown becoming a merchant with his business partner and fellow loyalist Matthew Elliott.

During the war of 1812, he and Elliott fought on the side of the British once again attached as a special forces unit initially assigned to Tecumseh. This small unit came to be known as the Caldwell’s Rangers earning several battle honours throughout the war. These honours were finally awarded 200 years later in 2012 by the Canadian Government.