Johann de Kalb
BIRTH
Mar 6, 1745
Brandenburg, Germany
DEATH
October 11, 1779
Camden, South Carolina
FAMILY
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Kalb, Johann de
(1745-1779)
Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb, born Johann Kalb, was a Franconian-born Frenchmilitary officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was mortally wounded while fighting against the British Army during the Battle of Camden.
GRAVE:
GRAVE
Bethesda Presbyterian Churchyard
502 East DeKalb Street, Camden, SC 29020, United States
Kalb was born in Hüttendorf, a German village near Erlangen, Principality of Bayreuth, the son of Johann Leonhard Kalb and Margarethe Seitz. He learned French, English, and the social skills to earn a substantial military commission in the Loewendal German Regiment of the French Army in 1743.
In July 1777, Kalb returned to North America with his protégé, the Marquis de Lafayette, and joined the Continental Army. He was disappointed and angry to learn that he would not be made a major general, but with Lafayette's influence was appointed to the rank on September 5, 1777, which he learned of as he was on the road to return to France.
Kalb was at Valley Forge for most of the winter between 1777 and 1778, commanding a division of Patterson's and Learned's Brigades. During this time, he wrote letters of introduction for John Adams to the French court, expressing a poor opinion of French forces