Born: 1737 Died: 1807
Age:
Occupation: Royal Councillor, Governor (King's College), Lieutenant-colonel (British army)
Residence: Manhattan, New York
Cruger was a prominent New York Loyalist and British officer whose military leadership in the American South earned him distinction during the Revolutionary War. Born into a wealthy merchant family in Jamaica with deep ties to New York, Cruger likely attended King’s College (now Columbia University) and later managed the family’s Caribbean trade. By the early 1770s, he held influential civic positions as a governor of King’s College and a member of the Governor’s Royal Council. When revolutionary unrest swept New York, Cruger’s open loyalty to the Crown forced him into hiding until the British occupation of the city in 1776.
Commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, Cruger served in his father-in-law Oliver DeLancey’s Loyalist brigade, participating in the defenses of Savannah, Charleston, and Camden. In 1780, Lord Cornwallis placed him in command of the frontier post at Ninety Six, South Carolina, where Cruger oversaw the construction of the star fort and led a masterful defense during Nathanael Greene’s 1781 siege. His ability to adapt—fortifying defenses and repelling Greene’s final assault—secured one of the last British strongholds in the South. After the war, Cruger’s property was confiscated, and he joined thousands of Loyalists in exile, settling in England, where he died in 1807.
Sources
Documents signed by this Loyalist:
D-STAC-001 – Declaration of Dependence