Revolutionary War General. Born in Huettendorf, Bavaria, the son of a peasant farmer, he attended school at Kriegenbronn before leaving home at age sixteen. He received military training in a German regiment of the French infantry in 1743. He served in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. In 1763, at the Battle of Wilhelmstahl, he won the Order of Military Merit. In 1768, the head of the French Foreign Ministry sent DeKalb to America on a secret mission for France to determine the extent of colonial discontent. He returned with detailed reports, but was apparently eager to return to the New World. In 1776, he won a promise of a commission in the Continental Army from Silas Deane, the American Commissioner to France and sailed again once more for America. He arrived in July 1777, and was appointed a Major General by the Continental Congress. Second in command to the Marquis de Lafayette, he participated in a failed expedition against Canada in 1778. In April 1780, DeKalb was ordered south to relieve Charleston, South Carolina, but the city fell to the British while he was still en route. At Deep River, North Carolina, he was joined by General Horatio Gates, commander of the southern department. Gates delayed an offensive until British forces became aware of his Army. On August 14, the Americans marched against them at Camden, South Carolina. During the battle, DeKalb's horse was killed under him, and he was himself wounded eleven times. DeKalb was carried from the field and attended by Dr. Isaac Alexander. He died three days later. In March 1825, DeKalb's remains were exhumed and reinterred in the Bethesda Presbyterian Churchyard. Robert Mills, the designer of the Washington Monument, also designed DeKalb's monument. General LaFayette laid its cornerstone. The epitaph reads: "Here lies the remains of Baron DeKalb - A German by birth, but in principle, a citizen of the world." Six counties in the United States are named for DeKalb.