Baron Johann de Kalb

Baron Johann de Kalb. . Major General Johann de Kalb's conduct at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina on August 16, 1780, was one of the outstanding feats of sheer bravery during the American Revolution. His powerful physique towered over his outnumbered Continental troops as he led them forward against the British line, only to receive eleven wounds that would slowly drain his life away, until his death in Camden three agonizing days later, on August 19., Accolades began almost immediately. British officers attended his funeral out of respect for an honored foe. American leaders spoke and wrote of their high regard. Congress authorized a memorial statue in Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, whose sons he had led in battle., People who witnessed de Kalb's performance that day never forgot it. A soldier who fought there wrote fifty-three years later that de Kalb was "…perhaps the bravest man that ever lived.", De Kalb was born into a peasant family in Huttendorf, Germany in 1721, and served with distinction in the French Army, winning the French Order of Military Merit for his performance in battle. Retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1764, he married a wealthy heiress, enjoyed a townhouse in Paris and a chateau near Versailles, and was devoted to his wife, two sons, and a daughter., In 1767-68, de Kalb came to America on an undercover mission for the French King to assess the likelihood of the colonies winning independence from Great Britain. De Kalb's fluency in English, French, and his native German greatly facilitated this mission, and he made many prescient observations about the coming rift between Great Britain and her American colonies., King Louis XVI made de Kalb a baron and a general officer in the French Army as rewards for agreeing to accompany the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1777. Lafayette and de Kalb sailed from France together, landed in South Carolina, and spent a celebratory week in Charleston before traveling to Philadelphia to meet with Congress. Lafayette was almost immediately commissioned by Congress as a Major General, reflecting his great wealth and position in the French nobility. De Kalb's commission for Major General came a few months later., Major General Johann de Kalb was fifty-nine years old when he died fighting for America's independence, here in Camden, an ocean away from the family that he loved and a life of ease and contentment. A man of true distinction and accomplishment, his leadership and example made important contributions to the American victory in our war for independence., We remember this gallant soldier by this statue which is near the field where he gave his last full measure of devotion to the cause of American independence., Sculptor: Maria Kirby-Smith, (captions) , Battle of Camden - Death of de Kalb, 1875 , This image depicts the mortal wounding of Baron de Kalb. He died three days later in Camden. The British buried him with full military honors., In 1780, the Baron was buried a block from this Center in the colonial town of Camden. In 1825, Baron de Kalb was reinterred 1.4 miles north at Bethesda Presbyterian Church under a Robert Mills designed monument. The Baron's old comrade, the Marquis de Lafayette, laid the cornerstone to the monument in a Masonic ceremony.