DeKalb County, Illinois - Chapter 4: Life of Baron Dekalb, 1868

Although the memory of the brave Baron DeKalb has been duly honored by the American people, so far as it can be done in the nomenclature of the Country, no less than fifteen towns, and about as many Counties in the Union, having received the name of this heroic general, yet feAv, very few of our countrymen are familiar with his history. While it is incumbent upon every intelligent American to preserve, fresh and green, the memory of those eminent Europeans who, like La Fayette, forsook the fascinations of foreign courts, to fio;ht for us the battle of our liberties, it is peculiarly desirable that we of De Kalb County should know and duly honor the memory of that generous hero of this class, who has given his name to our County and to one of our prominent towns.

Baron John DeKalb, was a native of the province of Alsace, a German province in the possession of France, and was born about the year 1732. He entered the French army at an early* age, and was there educated in the art of war, in which he attained great proficiency, having become a Brigadier General in that army, and a Knight of the Order of Merit. ' In 1762 he visited the Anglo-American colonics as a secret agent of the French government, and no doubt on that mission, acquired that knowledge of our country, and something of that interest in its destinies, that led him in November, 1776, soon after the stirring news of our declaration of independence had reached Europe, to offer his services to Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, the first envoys of our young Republic to France, to serve in the armies of the revolted colonies. His proffer was gratefully accepted, and in the following year lie sailed with the Marquis de La Fayette and ten other French officers, to this country. On September 15th, 1777, he was appointed by Congress a Major General, and soon after he joined the main army under Washington which was then operating about Philadelphia. The American officers were intensely jealous of these foreign allies as a class, and the high commands given them, excited great dissatisfaction, but the aims and acts of the veteran Baron De Kalb were of so high an order, his enthusiasm for the deliverance of all who were oppressed was so earnest and heartfelt, his desire for rank was so evidently for the purpose of better serving the new-born nation, and his military talents were so unmistakably eminent, that he disarmed this hostility of the native-born fellow soldiers, and served with their approbation, their confidence, their esteem.

After a few weeks of active operations about Philadelphia, he went with the army into winter quarters at Valley Forge where his active sympathy and enthusiasm for the cause, aided to lighten and brighten the dreariness of that most gloomy winter of American history. During the two following years, he served with honor to himself, and satisfaction to the country, in the campaigns in Maryland and New Jersey. When in April, 1780, the capture of Charleston, the principal Southern seaport, Avas threatened by the British under Clinton, DcKalb was selected by Washington with the approbation of Congress, to proceed South with the Maryland and Delaware forces to reinforce Lincoln, ayIio was in command at Charleston. Conveyed by water to Petersburg, Va., they commenced a long and weary march for the Carolinas. The country Avas poor and thinly inhabited ; no magazines had been laid up ; the commissaries had neither money nor credit. It must have taxed all the resources of their general, to prosecute the march in the face of these obstacles. But undaunted he pressed on, scattering his soldiers over the country in small parties. They collected their oavu supplies by impressing

Halting at length at Deep river, he was overtaken by Gen. Gates, who had been appointed by Congress to the command of the Southern department, and pressed on through a barren and disaffected country toward Camden. The little army was soon greatly augmented hj reinforcements of Virginian and Carolinian troops ; but weakened by diseases, caused by eating unripe peaches and green corn as substitutes for bread. The patriot army approached Camden with nearly 6,000 men, but they were mostly raw militia, and weakened by disease and their arduous marches. Lord Cornwallis, who commanded the British force, opposed to him, had a much smaller army, but they were veterans, and were so situated that defeat would have been their destruction. On the night of the 6th of August, Cornwallis put his troops in motion, determined to attack and surprise Gates. On that same night Gates had moved forward his army, intending to occupy another position nearer Camden. The advance of the two armies encountered each other unexpectedly in the woods. A council of war was called, and De Kalb, the second in command, who had cautioned Gates against the result of a general engagement, recommended that the army should fall back to a more favorable position. Gates scorned the advice. " I would not give a penny to be insured a beefsteak in Camden to-day with Lord Cornwallis a captured prisoner at my table." DeKalb, who had repeatedly foretold the ruin that would ensue, and expressed a presentiment that he would fall in the battle, was taunted by the rash Gates, who insinuated that his prudence was occasioned by fear. De Kalb instantly placed himself at the head of his troops on foot, replying : Well, sir, a few hours will prove who are brave.

The British rushed with charged bayonets on Gates' center and left, when his troops broke and fled, leaving their guns on the ground. Gates went with them, and did not cease his flight till he reached Charlotte, eighty miles from the field of battle.

The brave DeKalb, at the head of the right wing, manfully stood his ground, and contended with the whole British army more than an hour. Hundreds of his devoted troops had fallen around him, when at last he fell, pierced by eleven bayonet wounds. At the entreaty of his aid, the British officers interposed to prevent his immediate destruction, but he survived only a few hours.

To a British officer, who kindly condoled with him on his misfortune, he replied: I thank you for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I have always prayed for - the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man ; and though I fight no more in this world, I trust I may still be of some service to the cause of freedom.

Many years after, General Washington visited the grave of the departed hero at Camden, and after gazing sadly awhile, he exclaimed : So here lies the brave DeKalb ! the generous stranger who came from a distant land to fight our battles, and water with his blood the tree of liberty.

Congress voted a monument to him, but it was never erected. The citizens of Camden, however, many years after, enclosed his grave, and placed on it a handsome marble with an epitaph, descriptive of his virtues and his services to the country.