American Revolutionary War
In 1777, he returned again with his protégé, the Marquis de Lafayette, and joined the Continental Army. He was disappointed and angry to learn, at first that he would not be made a major general, but after Lafayette's influence, was appointed on September 5, 1777, while he was on the road to leave for France.
He was at Valley Forge for most of the 1777–78 winter, and commanded a division of Patterson's and Learned's Brigades. He wrote letters of introduction for John Adams to the French court. De Kalb wrote:
On the whole, I have annoyances to bear, of which you can hardly form a conception. One of them is the mutual jealousy of almost all the French officers, particularly against those of higher rank than the rest. These people think of nothing but their incessant intrigues and backbitings. They hate each other like the bitterest enemies, and endeavor to injure each other wherever an opportunity offers. I have given up their society, and very seldom see them. La Fayette is the sole exception; I always meet him with the same cordiality and the same pleasure. He is an excellent young man, and we are good friends.... La Fayette is much liked, he is on the best of terms with Washington.
He was assigned the command of a division of Maryland and Delaware troops, and was ordered south as reinforcements. During the British southern campaign, he was disappointed to learn that Horatio Gates had been appointed to command instead of him. At the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780, de Kalb's horse was shot from under him, causing him to tumble to the ground. Before he could get up, he was shot three times and bayonetted repeatedly by British soldiers. His friend and aide, the Chevalier du Buysson, was seriously wounded blocking additional blows with his own body.
It is reported that Cornwallis supervised as De Kalb's wounds were dressed by his own surgeons in Camden, South Carolina. De Kalb replied to a British officer, "I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man." He died three days later and was buried in Camden.
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