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DEKALB AND MARYLAND
By DIETER CUNZ
The splendid and distinguished
figure of General Steuben has always
placed the former peasant boy and
pseudo-aristocrat, Johann DeKalb, a
bit in the shade. Only rarely has he
induced historians to write his life.
As late as eighty years after his death
there appeared the first well-rounded
biography of DeKalb written by one
of the most famous "forty-eighters,"
Friedrich Kapp. His Leben des Ameri-
kanischen Generals Johann Kalb ap-
peared in 1862 in Stuttgart. It was
translated into English and published
in New York. At first (1870) pri-
vately published, then publically
(1884) under the title The Life of
John Kalb. Up to the present day
this is the only monograph of DeKalb.
To be sure, DeKalb's name appeared
in all general works on the Germans
in America; the most important epoch
of his life was treated in a French
publication by Ludovic de Colleville,
Les Missions Sécrètes du Général-
Major Baron de Kalb et son Role
dans la Guerre de l'Independence
Americaine (Paris 1885). Aside from
Kapp's book there has not been down
to the present day a complete biog-
raphy of DeKalb. It would certainly
seem to be a worth while task for an
historian to gather into a new modern
presentation all the material that has
been collected in the last eighty years
since Kapp's first effort.¹
The man who later in life became
known as Baron DeKalb was born
June 29, 1721, simply as Johann Kalb,
son of a peasant at Huettendorf not
far from Bayreuth. He did not re-
ceive more than the customary ele-
mentary education, became a waiter
and as such he went off into foreign
countries. From this period there is
no trace of him whatever until in
the year 1743 he bobs up as Jean de
Kalb and as a lieutenant in the
French infantry regiment, Loewendal.
Nothing whatever justified him in
assuming the title of nobility—except
perhaps the prejudice of the military
class which barred an army career to
every bourgeois, or at least made it
very difficult. His title of nobility
rested on a very weak and uncertain
foundation. All the more solid and
thorough, however, was DeKalb's
knowledge of mathematics and strat-
egy; rarer too were his gifts for army
organization and his talent for for-
eign languages. By these means his
career in the French army progressed
very rapidly. After the year 1764 he
retired for some time from military
life but his energy and restless tem-
perament did not permit him to re-
main idle for long. Therefore in 1767
he undertook a diplomatic mission to
America in order to report on the
happenings in the British colonies.
Upon his return to France he resumed
his old military career and ended his
services in the French army as briga-
dier general, when in the year 1776
he sailed for America for the second
time, on this occasion to place him-
self at the disposal of the cause of the
American Revolution.
An American representative in
France, Silas Deane, had promised
him the rank of a major general in
the American army, thereby exceed-
ing his prerogatives because Congress
hesitated for considerable time to
make good this promise. However,
since it wished to assure itself of the
services of DeKalb, he was finally ap-
1
At the beginning of this century there appeared a small popular biography of DeKalb written for
juvenile readers, Percy K. Fitzhugh, The Story of General Johann DeKalb (New York, 1906), which,
however, makes no claim whatever to scientific treatment.
[18]
pointed major general and as such in
the year 1777 DeKalb entered the
American army. He commanded a
division of New England regiments,
took part in the military operations
in the vicinity of Philadelphia during
the autumn of 1777, and spent the
winter in camp at Valley Forge. An
opportunity for special distinction,
however, was not given him. Only
as late as April 1780 he was accorded
his first and final important mission:
he was to relieve Charleston, South
Carolina, which at that time was
being besieged by the British. He
was placed in command of the Mary-
land Line, consisting of Maryland and
Delaware troops, and m the summer
of 1780 he moved to the South with
this command.²
The entire expedition from its very
inception was an unfortunate and
hopeless undertaking. No one knew
this better than DeKalb; everything
was lacking: soldiers, munitions, pro-
visions—and above all, a good su-
preme command. General Gates, who
directed the entire military operations
of the southern division, was an in-
capable soldier and a stubborn and
incompetent person. Without due
preparations and in great haste he
sent his troops on August 16, 1780
forward to attack Camden, S. C.
(very much against DeKalb's ad-
vice). Exactly what DeKalb had
prophecied took place; the British
won a splendid victory, the Maryland
Line was put to flight with heavy
losses and DeKalb himself became a
prisoner of the British and died from
wounds August 19 in Camden.
Nonetheless, the name of DeKalb
did not disappear from American poli-
tics with this date. Congress had not
made the payments for DeKalb's
stipulated pay and soon afterward his
heirs pressed their demands.³ The
demands which DeKalb's widow made
in 1784 were refuted because of a
technicality. However, in 1819, the
the grandchildren of DeKalb came
forward with similar demands and
asked for half-pay for seven years, in
addition to the landgrant decreed for
all Revolutionary generals to which
they were entitled according to an act
of Congress. The second half of this
demand was immediately met when
in 1822 the heirs were accorded a strip
of land in the then military district
of Ohio. The other part of their re-
quest, however, dragged on for thirty-
six years until it was met in a satis-
factory manner, when, after endless
debate in Congress, the heirs of De-
Kalb in the year 1855 received a sum
of $66,000 in full settlement of all their
demands. It is the merit of the sena-
tors and congressmen of Maryland
and Delaware, whose troops fought
under DeKalb, and of the congress-
men of South Carolina, in which state
DeKalb met his heroic death, that
this final settlement was honorably
achieved.
Side by side with the monetary
affair, there ran through more than a
full century the business of the offi-
cial monument which Congress was
to erect in honor of DeKalb.
It was through General Gates, who
too late realized DeKalb's military
ability, that Congress heard of the
disaster in Camden. "Here I must
be permitted to say how much I think
is due to the Baron DeKalb," Gen-
eral Gates said in his letter to Con-
gress, "and I am convinced Congress
will declare to the world the high
estimation they have for his memory
and services." And in another letter
to George Washington, "He was
everything an excellent officer should
be, and in the cause of the United
States has sacrificed his life. Too
much honor can not be paid by Con-
gress to the memory of the Baron De-
Kalb." Accordingly, the Continental
Congress in Philadelphia decreed,
2
J. G. Keys: Baron DeKalb, The Patriotic Marylander, I (1915), 30 ff.—Christopher L. Ward, The
Delaware Continentals 1776-1783 (Wilmington, 1941), PP. 325 ff.
3
DeKalb's adjutant, Du Baisson, tried in 1781 to obtain from the Maryland Legislature some aid for
the General's widow, but nothing is reported regarding the result of this request. Maryland Archives,
Vol. 47, pp. 131, 234.
[19]
October 14, 1780, that a monument
be erected to the memory of the late
Major General the Baron DeKalb in
the City of Annapolis in the State
of Maryland.
4
The very inscription
which the monument was to bear was
proposed textually and accepted by
Congress.
For the time being nothing was
done beyond this decree. Current
worries pushed the plan into the
background. At the end of the war
the treasury was empty and conse-
quently for a long time no one gave
thought to the monument of DeKalb
in Annapolis.
On the spot in Camden where De-
Kalb had been buried there stood for
a long time only a tree. At the be-
ginning of the twenties in the nine-
teenth century, the inhabitants of
Camden, particularly the Free Masons
to whose society DeKalb had be-
longed, decided to erect a monument
over his grave. General Lafayette on
his journey through the United States
in 1825 laid the foundation for this
monument. The inscription read
"Here lie the remains of Baron De-
Kalb, a German by birth, but in
principle a citizen of the world."
This, however, was not yet the offi-
cial monument which Congress had
decided to erect to DeKalb in the
city of Annapolis. It wasn't that it
had been completely forgotten; during
the forties and fifties there is frequent
mention of it in the proceedings of
Congress and of the legislature of
Maryland. On the 28th of March,
1848, the Maryland Legislature re-
peated officially the Congressional de-
cree of 1780. The senators and repre-
sentatives were instructed by legisla-
ture to demand that Congress carry
out this plan. Nevertheless, this effort
of the legislature remained just as in-
effectual as those of 1850 and 1855.
5
In the year 1858 the Maryland His-
torical Society appeared on the scene.
In a memorial directed to the thirty-
fifth Congress, they referred again to
the decree of 1780.
6
They continued
further: "The adoption of this reso-
lution by the members of that Con-
gress could scarcely have been a mere
expression of approbation of the gal-
lantry of the Baron DeKalb, but
carried with it, as must be supposed,
the higher purpose of testifying their
homage to his eminent service in an
enduring form. . . . The omission to
execute the resolution arose from the
momentous exigencies of the public
service. . . . After the adoption of the
constitution of 1787, the whole mind
of the statesmen of that day was di-
rected to putting the new machinery
into motion. . . . Now, however, all
these impediments to its execution
have ceased, and it would seem that
no more appropriate period than the
present can be found for discharging
this long-neglected but no less sacred
duty. . . . With these considerations,
and with the knowledge that the re-
sources of the country are of un-
doubted abundance, your memori-
alists would most earnestly, yet re-
spectfully, pray that the patriotic
resolution of 1780, directing the erec-
tion of a monument in gratitude to
the zeal, services, and merit of the
Baron DeKalb may be now executed."
Even this energetic appeal did not
have the desired effect. The follow-
ing decade, the period of the Civil
War, brought other and more urgent
demands. For many years no men-
tion was made of DeKalb's monu-
ment.
Probably it was due to the various
centennial celebrations of the great
Revolutionary happenings that re-
called the name of DeKalb. At the
session of the Maryland Legislature
in 1878 Col. J. Thomas Scharf, a
member of the House of Delegates
from Baltimore City who became
well-known as a Maryland historian,
4
Journal of the Continental Congress 1774-1789, Vol. XVIII (Washington, 1910), pp. 849, 917, 923.
5
Miscellaneous Documents Printed by Order of the House of Representatives of the United States,
Washington 1848, Documents No. 69—Washington 1859, Document No. 55.—Miscellaneous Documents
Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States, Washington 1850, Document No. 92.
6
Mscellaneous Documents, House of Representatives, Washington 1858, Document Nr. 98.
[20]
introduced joint resolutions in the
legislature requesting our representa-
tives in Congress to secure an appro-
priation to carry out the original reso-
lution of 1780. The resolutions were
adopted and a bill was introduced in
the United States Senate by Senator
J. B. Groome appropriating $10,000
to erect the monument.
7
The bill
finally became law in March 1883. In
the year 1884 the question of the
monument was repeatedly aired in
both houses of the Maryland Legisla-
ture.
8
A committee was appointed
which was to confer with the United
States authorities in Washington, and
above all, with the Secretary of State,
concerning DeKalb's monument. For
some time the plan was to erect it on
the campus of St. John's College, and
on one occasion Baltimore was con-
sidered as its setting. A petition of a
hundred citizens of Annapolis de-
manded that the state should pur-
chase a suitable location in the city
of Annapolis for this monument. All
of these proposals were ignored for
the legislature decided to cede to the
Federal Government a bit of ground
in the State House Circle in Anna-
polis in order that the monument
might be erected there. This decision,
which underlines the official character
of the recognition of DeKalb, became
final.
9
Hereupon the erection of the
monument was actually begun and it
was unveiled on the anniversary of
the battle of Camden, August 16,
1886.
10
It bears the inscription:
"Sacred to the memory of the Baron
DeKalb, Knight of the Royal Order
of Military Merit, Brigadier of the
Armies of France, and Major General
in the service of the United States of
America. Having served with honor
and reputation for three years, he
gave a last and glorious proof of his
attachment to the liberties of man-
kind and the cause of America in the
action near Camden in the State of
South Carolina, on the sixteenth day
of August, seventeen hundred and
eighty, when leading on the troops of
the Maryland and Delaware Lines
against superior numbers, and ani-
mating them by his example to deeds
of valor, he was pierced with many
wounds, and on the nineteenth fol-
lowing expired, in the forty-eighth
years of his age. The Congress of the
United States of America, in grati-
tude to his zeal, services and merit,
have erected this monument."
Obviously this inscription makes no
reference whatsoever to DeKalb's
German descent. This is explained
by the fact that it is the original in-
scription which Congress had designed
and accepted in 1780. At that time
probably no one was aware of De-
Kalb's European origin. Few people
of that time were at all interested and
he himself very likely did not care to
discuss his childhood and youth be-
cause of the improperly assumed title
of nobility. This explains why the in-
scription on the monument at An-
napolis, which to be sure was accepted
in 1780 but which was inscribed only
in 1886, makes no reference to the
German origin of the general.
11
7
Journal of Proceedings of the House of Delegates of Maryland, 1878, pp. 589, 666, 875.—Journal of
Proceedings of the Senate, 1878, pp. 347, 368, 413.
8
Journal of Proceedings of the Senate of Maryland 1884, pp. 46, 221, 240, 731, 761, 793, 826, 832,
858 1038. Journal of Proceedings of the House of Delegates of Maryland 1884, pp. 463, 1255, 1280,
1347, 1453.
9
This proposal was accepted in the Senate unanimously and in the House with fourteen votes to one.
10
Programme of Ceremonies preserved in the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Cf. Baltimore Sun,
August 14, 16, 17, 1886" Edward T. Schultz, History of Freemasonery in Maryland, Vol. IV (Baltimore
1888), pp. 324 ff. The monument was the work of a Baltimore sculptor of German descent, Ephraim
Keyser, l850-1937, who had studied in Germany and Italy (Appleton's Cyclopedia of America, New York
1887, III, 530 f.). At the dedication ceremonies in Annapolis, the speakers were the Secretary of State
Thomas F. Bayard and Col. J. Thomas Scharf. The United German Singing Society of Baltimore took
Part in the festivities. On the occasion of this ceremony the newly founded Society for the History of
the Germans in Maryland made their first public appearance (First Report of the Society, 1887, p. 21).
11
On the 16th of August, 1930, the 150th anniversary of the battle of Camden, the Sons of the
American Revolution arranged a celebration in honor of DeKalb at the site of the monument. Cf.
National Society, S. A. R. Quarterly Bulletin, October 1930, pp. 229 ff. The memorial address delivered
by the president of the Maryland Society of the S. A. R., Mr. T. Scott Offutt, was published in the
Quarterly Bulletin of the S. A. R., October 1930, pp. 232 ff.
[21]
The historians may have neglected
DeKalb. In the history of the Ameri-
can nation, however, he has a secure
niche as one of the few Revolution-
ary generals who gave their life for
the ideas of 1776.
12
In the state of
Maryland, whose troops he led, no
other German has received such offi-
cial distinction as the former peasant
boy from Franconia, whose memory
the American people has preserved in
a monument erected "In gratitude to
the zeal, services; and merit of the
Baron DeKalb."
CARL HEINRICH SCHNAUFFER:
Die Freiheit ist ein Diamant,
Der nie wie Glas zerschellt,
Wie oft er auch der zagen Hand
Des armen Volks entfällt.
Freedom is a diamond pure,
Not glass to break or shatter.
Though oft the folk with hand unsure
May let it fall, what matter?
Carl Heinrich Schnauffer, poet and journalist, liberal
German refugee, well-known forty-eighter, born in Heims-
heim, Germany (1823), died in Baltimore, Maryland
(1854).—English translation of the stanza by Lois
Zucker.
12
DeKalb's name has been preserved in many other ways. There are today numerous DeKalb Streets
in various American cities. In six states (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee)
there are DeKalb Counties. In Illinois there is also a City of DeKalb.
[22]
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