Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Caldwell, Hume
CALDWELL, HUME (1733–1762), colonel, third son of Sir John Caldwell, second baronet, of Castle Caldwell, county Fermanagh, was born there in 1733. He entered the Austrian army at an early age. While stationed at Prague he accidentally set fire to the furniture in his lodgings, and his landlord applied to have his pay sequestrated to pay for the damage. The brothers of the Irish Franciscan convent came to his aid on account of the kindness with which Caldwell's father had treated his catholic neighbours (Burke, Peerage and Baronetage, 1837, ‘Caldwell, bart.’) Caldwell served with honour throughout the seven years' war; he soon rose to the rank of colonel, and received the cross of the order of Maria Theresa from the empress-queen for his gallant conduct at the battle of Domstädtl. His greatest exploit was at the sudden attack on the fortress of Schweidnitz, by General Loudon, on 30 Sept. 1761, when he led the stormers of the Garden Fort and carried it in a quarter of an hour, for which he was specially mentioned in Loudon's despatches. He died in the following year at Schweidnitz from a wound received during a sortie from the fortress, when it was being besieged by Frederick the great. Maria Theresa never forgot Caldwell's services; she created his elder brother, Sir James Caldwell, bart., count of Milan in the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1766, when he was passing through Vienna, she gave him a magnificently enamelled gold box to present to his mother, the Dowager Lady Caldwell.
[Burke's Peerage and Baronetage for 1837, ‘Caldwell, bart.;’ Von Jankos's article in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, where he refers to Hirtenfeld's Mil. Theresien Orden, i. 82, and Hirtenfeld's Oesterreich. Conversations-Lexikon, i. 601.]