The last shots of the battle were fired on the campus of what is now Princeton University

According to a well-known, maybe legendary tale, Alexander Hamilton ordered his artillery to fire on British soldiers hiding in Nassau Hall, the landmark main structure of Princeton University, where the 40th and 55th Regiments of Foot had found cover, during the Battle of Princeton. Alexander Hamilton brought three cannons up and had them blast away at the building. The King George II painting that hung in the structure was hit by one of the cannonballs as a result; it was later replaced by an image of George Washington.

Major James Wilkinson, an aide to General Washington, remembered the event quite differently. “ There was only one gun fired at the college, a six-pounder, by an officer who did not know the enemy had fled the area. The bullet recoiled and almost killed my horse as I passed behind the structure.”