Johann kalb baron de kalb biography

Johann de Kalb was a Bavarian-French officer who served as a major General for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was known as one of the best field commanders of the war and fell in battle due to incompetent leadership from Horatio Gates at the Battle of Camden. 

Johann de Kalb Facts: Early Life in Europe

Kalb was born in Hüttendorf, a village near Erlangen, Bavaria, the son of Johann Leonhard Kalb and Margarethe Seitz.

Johann kalb baron de kalb biography

He learned French and English and had the social skills to earn a substantial military commission in the Loewendal German Regiment of the French Army. He served with distinguished honor in the War of the Austrian Succession in Flanders.

During the Seven Years' War, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and made assistant quartermaster general in the Army of the Upper Rhine, a division created by the disbanding of the Loewendal Regiment. He won the Order of Military Merit in 1763 and was elevated to th