From Double Agent to Veteran Advocate: The Remarkable Journey of Caleb Bruen
VA History · · g5101798
In 1959, Revolutionary War soldier Caleb Bruen was lying at rest in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church (also known as the Old Presbyterian Church) in Newark, New Jersey. However, his resting place was facing a disturbance. According to reporting at that time by Nat Brandt in Newark’s Star-Ledger newspaper, church leadership was planning to convert the historic Broad Street cemetery into a parking lot, and reinter those resting there in a new mass plot.
Caleb’s great-great-grandson Edward F. L. Bruen, a Manhattan attorney, spoke out against the church’s reinterment plan. This controversy from over six decades ago, together with its resolution, offers us a chance to reflect on both Caleb Bruen’s patriotic service and his vibrant living legacy.
Caleb Bruen was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1735. His life as a cabinet maker changed with the outbreak of the American Revolution. In 1776, Bruen enlisted in Joseph Alling’s Company of Essex County Minute Men. That same year, he supported the New York Campaign as captain of a company of “artificers,” the carpenters and artisans whose work supported the fighting troops. Writer Charles Dewey notes that Bruen’s unit “constructed numerous fortifications from Long Island all the way up through Manhattan to King’s Bridge before they crossed the Hudson River to Fort Lee.”
Loyalists captured Bruen in 1777, releasing him on the condition that he spy for the British. However, Bruen turned the tables on his former captors; he became a double agent, pretending to serve British intelligence needs while in fact supporting the Continental Army.
Bruen’s espionage work came to an end after a Continental Army deserter revealed Bruen’s true mission to British General Henry Clinton. The British imprisoned Bruen, who endured deplorable conditions of limited food and lack of sunlight.
Bruen survived his imprisonment and returned to civilian life after the war’s end. He was an engaged citizen who was particularly proactive for his own cause as a Veteran. In 1785, he petitioned the young Nation’s Congress for compensation for both the suffering he endured and the expenses he incurred during his Revolutionary War service. As evidence for his compensation claim, Bruen provided travel passes issued to him by Continental Army leaders during the war. These passes offer intriguing glimpses into the otherwise murky world of a double agent. These passes provided Bruen with official cover to travel around New York and New Jersey, with at least one explicitly authorizing him to penetrate enemy lines. Dr. Alexander MacWhorter, who had frequently visited Bruen after his release from British imprisonment, provided a letter that added further support to Bruen’s claim.
Bruen’s careful curation of his own wartime papers paid off. Gen. Henry Knox, upon review of the evidence, authenticated Bruen’s claim in his judgment to the Continental Congress and ordered monetary compensation to the Veteran. Following this victory, Bruen went on to live a long life, dying in 1818 at the age of 82. He was interred at the cemetery of the aforementioned First Presbyterian Church.
Bruen’s passing brings us back to the 1959 dilemma faced by his great-great-grandson. Unsatisfied with First Presbyterian’s redevelopment and reinterment proposal, Edward Bruen speculated as to whether a Veteran’s final resting place is “only sacred to his memory until no one remembers.”
Fortunately, Edward Bruen found the permanence and sanctity that he desired for his forbear at Beverly National Cemetery. Originating with land purchased in 1863, this cemetery had been a natural resting place for Civil War soldiers. Caleb Bruen joined these honored dead at Beverly on June 23, 1959. His official record of interment lists great-great-grandson Edward Bruen as next of kin, indicating Edward’s commitment to honoring his ancestor’s wartime courage and sacrifice.
Today, visitors to Beverly National Cemetery can visit Section S, Site 193 in order to pay their respects to Caleb Bruen. Beyond his remarkable experiences as a double agent and prisoner of war, Bruen left a rich legacy. Part of that legacy is Newark’s First Presbyterian Church itself, to which Bruen made a significant 1786 financial donation. His contribution to this institution is significant. As First Presbyterian notes on its own website today, it is Newark’s oldest church, and its structure had served as the city’s first public building; Bruen’s monetary support of such an important institution can be seen as part of a broader commitment to the public good.
That legacy of commitment to the public good continued on with Caleb Bruen’s descendants. As noted by Star-Ledger reporter Brandt, both Caleb’s son Matthias and grandson George served as alderman for Perth Amboy, a New Jersey municipality not far from Newark. Great-great-grandson Edward Bruen’s own advocacy on behalf of Caleb’s reinterment was a natural continuation of this generational commitment to civic responsibility.
But Caleb Bruen’s legacy stretches beyond his family, his church, his home town, and even the state of New Jersey. His story of wartime intrigue, danger, and survival offers many lessons.
Consider, for example, the lessons learned at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas, during a March 2026 outreach event for elementary school students. During the museum’s “Homeschool Day 1776,” children learned about the American Revolution by engaging in hands-on activities that included an “American Revolution Secret Spy Map” and “invisible ink” for creating covert communication. The Archives and Outreach staff of the Texas General Land Office (GLO) chose Caleb Bruen as one of three Revolutionary War spies from which the children would draw lessons and inspiration.
GLO staffers guided students as they traced Caleb Bruen’s wartime odyssey in invisible ink across a map of Bruen’s America. Each student who put pen to map that day became yet another inheritor of the legacy of this remarkable Veteran. As America observes its 250th anniversary year, Caleb Bruen’s voice continues to resonate with a story of courage, commitment, and resilience.