Military officer; born in Huttendorf,
Bavaria, June 29, 1721; entered the
French military service in 1743, and in 1747 rose to the rank of brigadier-general under
Marshal Broglie, and obtained the order of military merit in 1761.
The next year he visited the
English-American colonies as a secret agent of the
French government, to ascertain their political temper.
He was a brigadier-general in the
French army when (November, 1776) he was engaged by
Franklin and
Deane to serve in the
Continental army.
He accompanied
Lafayette to
America in 1777, and was appointed major-general, Sept. 15, 1777, by the Continental Congress.
He served under the immediate command of
Washington until after the evacuation of
Philadelphia, June, 1778; then in
New Jersey and
Maryland until April, 1780, when he was sent to assist
Lincoln, besieged in
Charleston.
He arrived too late.
De Kalb became chief commander in the
South after the fall of
Charleston, but was soon succeeded by
General Gates, when he became that officer's second in command.
In the disastrous battle at
Sander's Creek, near
Camden, S. C., he was mortally wounded, and died three days afterwards, Aug. 19, 1780.
His body was pierced with eleven wounds.
It was buried at
Camden.
A marble monument was erected to his memory in front of the Presbyterian Church at
Camden, the corner-stone of which was laid by
Lafayette in 1825.
