NJ, USA
Cannonade of Nassau Hall
January 3, 1777
During the Battle of Princeton, approximately 200 British soldiers retreated into Nassau Hall, the main building of the College of New Jersey. Captain Alexander Hamilton reportedly ordered his artillery to fire on the building. After several rounds struck the walls, the British garrison surrendered.
Legend holds that a cannonball passed through a wall and decapitated a portrait of King George II hanging in the prayer hall. The story, whether precisely true, captured the symbolic resonance of an American cannon destroying a British king's image inside the most important educational institution in the middle colonies. Nassau Hall's damage was repaired, and the building later housed the Continental Congress in 1783.
People Involved
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army (1732-1799) who personally led the attack at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, rallying his troops at a critical moment to turn the tide of the engagement.