The life of John Kalb, Major-General in the Revolutionary Army

Preface

Congress having on February 19th, 1883, passed the resolution to carry out the vote of OctobL-r 14th, 1780, to erect at Annapolis a monument in honor of General Kalb, I find the moment propitious to prepare for publication a book which I have long had by me. Besides I prefer publishing my researches in my own name to running the risk of seeing them adopted by others who do not even condescend to mention the source from which they have drawn their information.

I do not consider it out of place to submit this work to the American reader, as the necessary sequel to the life of Frederick William von Steuben, published in 1859. Kalb and Steuben taken together complete the design I had in view of detailing the participation of German generals in the establishment of American independence. Both of these men were noble specimens of the race from which they sprung, and under the most unfavorable auspices they have unfolded some of its finest qualities.

What first led me to an inquiry into Kalb's personal history was the mysterious twilight in which his memory was shrouded. Even the orthography of his name was uncertain. Some write it Kalbe, others Colbe, still others Kalb ; Mr. Bancroft names Alsace as his native land, while Lord Stormond, the English ambassador, assigns him to Switzerland. The year of his birth varied between 1717 and 1732; one authority credits his military antecedents to the Prussian, another to the Austrian, a third to the French array. The French employed him as a secret political agent, the Americans occasionally took him for a French iv PEEFACE

spy, and even in the revolutionary war his appearance is meteoric, for he is rarely or never mentioned up to the moment of his heroic death on the field of Camden. Thus his image hovered in a romantic haze of the most opposite probabilities, all the more attractive by its contrast to the biography of Steuben, for whicli all the materials were found ready cut and dried with true Prussian exactitude. It affords me pleasure to say that my researches soon dispelled the mystery, and were rewarded with a very gratifying crop of historical discoveries, drawn from sources of which but one or two were previously known to the curious. One word as to these fountain-heads. While at Washington in 1856, I was accidentally fortunate in making the acquaintance of John Carroll Brent, Esquire, who had for years represented the family of Kalb as their solicitor at the bar of Congress. To his kindness I am indebted for the address of the Viscountess d'Alzac, ofMilon la Chapellc, Department Seine et Oise, the grand-daughter of Kalb, who is in possession of his posthumous writings. On preferring to this lady a request for permission to inspect and, if necessary, to copy the papers of her grandfather, I was favored with a letter from Mr. I. Nachtmann, a Polish refugee in consequence of the revolution of 1831. This gentleman, long in relations of intimacy with the family d'Alzac, had himself conceived the design of writing a life of Kalb, based upon the materials there at hand. He had progressed down to the year 1775, producing a work which followed implicitly the Milon authorities, less remarkable, perhaps, for discrimination than for completeness in details. A correspondence of several years resulted in the purchase by me of Mr. Nachtmann's MS., accompanied by copies of all papers of the general then in the possession of the family. It is hardly necessary to say that without these papers, and especially without Mr. Nachtmann's carefully prepared draught, it would have been impossible for me to liave ac-

PEEFACE V

complished anything like a coherent narrative of Kalb's life and fortunes.

In citing these authorities I have designated them as Kalb's MSS. adding the name of ^•J^achtmann" up to the concluding point of that gentleman's labors, and adding '^Milon la Chapelle," for the remaining period which extends from 1776 to 1780. The latter were comparatively sterile, because Kalb's numerous letters from America mainly relate to matters of personal or domestic interest, and but rarely touch upon public affairs and military movements; they were, however, of great value in enabling me to fix dates and localities with undoubted accuracy.

To Mr. George Bancroft I am under special obligations for the loan of the principal papers respecting Kalb's first journey to America. The evidences of Kalb's birth and extraction I owe to the kindness of my friend, Professor K. L. Aegidi, now professor at Bonn, and the obliging assistance of the Reverend Mr. Recknagel, pastor of Kirchenaurach, Consistorial Councilor Dr. George Kapp, of Munich, and Mr. Philip Feust, then of Erlangen, now lawyer at Fiirth. My friend, M. Louis Tribert, of Paris, supplied me with some valuable data from the papers of the ministry of war, and, long after I had renounced all hope of further discoveries, my friend, Mr. John Bigelow, then American Consul in the last-named city, discovered, in the archives of the same ministry, no less than thirty letters and documents of Kalb's, of which he had the goodness to procure copies for me. In this disinterested act of friendship he received, at the hands of M. Blondel, the custodian of these archives, that courteous assistance which has always distinguished the officials of the French government.

The libraries of the Historical Societies at New York and Baltimore contain very valuable documents. In the latter city the manuscript papers of General Gist, as well as other writings, cited in tlic course of the work, turned out to be

VI PREFACE

extremely productive. In New York the papers of General Gates were particularly rich in materials, and of incalculable value for my purposes. The librarians of these institutions, Mr. George H. Moore here, and Mr. A. M. Rogers of Baltimore, aided my efforts with their accustomed kindness.

All these gentlemen are requested to accept my heartfelt thanks for the friendship thus extended.

In the office of the Secretary of State at Washington I had no difficulty in obtaining the consent of General Cass to my taking copies of letters and documents relating to the subject of this memoir. Under the administration of Mr. Seward, several excerpts from a volume containing the De Kalb and the Du Coudray papers were withheld from me on the ground that they were deemed not relevant to my subject. A written demonstration to the contrary, which I furnished, received no attention. On the whole, no change has taken place in the narrow-minded jealousy with which the revolutionary documents are guarded in Washington, anymore than in the neglected early education of the gentlemen who guard them. The unsophisticated views of these worthy functionaries on matters of historical interest are without a parallel in the present century.

The following correspondence took place between the State Department and myself in relation to this subject.

Department of State, ) Washington, December 11, 1861. f Friedrich Kapp, Esq., 122 Broadway, New York.

Sir: It is understood that you have recently made application for copies of certain invoices among the Du Coudray papers on file in this Department, for the purpose of throwing hght on a Life of the Baron de Kalb, which you propose to publish. As no connection can be discovered between the papers requested and the proposed Life of De Kalb, you are informed that such copies will not be allowed to be taken unless you can offer a sufficient explanation in this regard. I am your obedient servant,

PREFACE VU

To which letter I replied as follows:

New York, December Vuh, 1861.

Hon. F, W. Seward, Assistant Seo-etary of State, Washington.

Sir: In reply to your favor of the 11th iust., refusing me the use of the Du Coudray Papers, on the rolls of your Department, unless I can offer a sufficient explanation, that they have a connection with the Life of Baron De Kalb, which I am now writing, I beg to say that Du Coudray was a French officer, who, with the knowledge of the French government, intended to come over to the United States in company with Baron De Kalb, and was charged with the shipment of several invoices of ammunition, goods and cannon, in aid of the Colonies.

As it is one of the essential points in my biography of De Kalb to elucidate the part taken by the French government in the American struggle of independence, you will see at once, the bearing of those papers upon my subject. I cannot establish my proofs without reference to those identical invoices contained in the Du Coudray Papers.

Another point is the action taken by Beaumarchais, who, in his desire of vindicating to himself exclusively the honor of having procured French e:oods and money in aid of the Revolution, made an attack both upon Du Coudray and De Kalb, as well as afterwards upon the Washington government, which he accused of fraud and false dealings to all Europe. To refute such charges is not only in the interest of my work, but of the fair fame of this Republic. If the above information should not prove sufficient to overcome the conscientious scruples of your department, respecting the connection between the life of one of the revolutionary heroes, and the light thrown upon the action of the French government in that revolution, by the Du Coudray Papers, I beg to refer your clerks to WiUard, Lossing, or Wilson, or almost any school-book on American History. Such being the case, your reply upon my application evinces, allow me to say, a gross ignorance prevailing in your department with regard to the elementary knowledge of the history of this country. The department might have avoided such exposure, if there had been good sense and literary breeding enough to know that every historian of character and responsibility must judge for himself as to the importance of the papers which he wishes to use or to consult, and that vm PREFACE

he claims the permission of perusiffg the same as his right in the interest of historical truth, not as a favor dependent upon the good will of ignorant clerks. If it be therefore not my right to have those copies, I have no disposition to ask a favor.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obdt. servant,

Friedrich Kapp.

In January, 1862, I called at the State Department, and was informed by the then Chief Clerk, Mr. Hunter, thattlie reasons given by me to be allowed access to the DuCoudray Papers had not been deemed satisfactory. Subsequently I saw Senator Charles Sumner, and in the course of my conversation with liim, I complained of the treatment I had received from the State Department. Mr. Sumner, with that obliging kindness and courtesy which the world over distinguishes the gentleman, at once volunteered his services to procure me copies of the documents in question. On April n, 1862, he enclosed to me the following letter :

Department of State, Washington, April 15, 1862.

Hon. Charles Sumner, Senate Chamber.

Sir : This Department accedes to the request which has been made by you, that Mr. Kapp may have access to certain papers that are among the Revolutionary Archives; or Mr. Kapp can have the papers referred to copied in the Department, by conforming to the requirements of law in this regard.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

William H. Seward.

As grateful as I was to the distinguished Senator for his interference, I did not feel disposed to avail myself of Mr. Seward's tardy permission. Having been warned by a former sad experience in the State Department, I had neglected nothing to conform with the requirements of the law in this respect, and I therefore considered tlie condition mentioned in Mr. Steward's note as a mere excuse to the Senator. Be-

PREFACE sides, for three unsuccessful trips to Washington, and for copying in the Department, I liad already spent considerably more than my means at that time would permit.

I should have wished to correct an error which I had committed in my life of Steuben, where, mentioning the dealings between Beaumarchais and the United States, I had charged the latter as being in fault, while a later and more thorough study of the subject convinced me that the only blame in these transactions properly fell on the shoulders of Beaumarchais. If I omitted to fulfil this duty, Mr. Seward's subordinates have to account for it.

Be that as it may, the materials enumerated exhaust the subject, and even cast new and important lights upon the political relations of France to England, and the present United States, from the year 1T67 to 1777, as well as upon some of the designs, hitherto unknown, of the French statesmen of that era. In these disclosures, Kalb is invested with a political no less than with a mihtary interest. His intercourse with Choiseul and Broglie, Lafayette and Washington, unfold the inmost recesses of the history of the period, and carry the reader far beyond the narrow confines of a military career, into the mazes of international politics.

While the life of every man is a reflection, more or less faithful, of the history of his time, which, indeed, is but the product of the welded activity of its thinkers and agents, Kalb is peculiarly a true son of the eighteenth cent, ury. Issuing from the undermost strata of society, and scaling its heights by dint of native power, he labors wittingly and willingly to bring out the form and pressure of the age, and bears in every feature the stamp of its faults and of its glories, of its paltry political misery and its lefty republican aspirations, its craven deference to timeworn prejudice, and its titanic wrestlings with hoary tradition.

Feiedeich Kapp.

Berlin, January 1884.

Chapter I

Kalb's Pedigree and Birth. — Enters the French Service, and Assumes a Title of Nobilitf. — His Motives. — Current Opinions of the Last Century on the Subject of the Differences between the Various Conditions in Life. — Kai.b a Lij:utknant in the Regiment Loewendal. — Kalb's Campaigns in Flanders and Alsace. — The School op Marshal Saxe. — Kalb Becomes a Captain, Adjutant, and " Officierde Detail". — Garrisons where he was Stationed in Times of Peace. — His Duties AND Services. — Capitulary Articles of the Foreign Regiments. — Kalb's Plan of an Invasion op England, and Creation op a Body op Marine Infantry, — The Project Fails of Adoption at Versailles. — He Returns to Cambray and Obtains a Major's Commission in 1756.

TT was not, as lias been hitherto erroneously supposed, the -^ lordly castle of a German baron, but the humble cottage of a Franconian peasant, which gave to the world the hero whose career these pages are intended io commemorate.

John Kalb was born the 29th of June, 1721, at Huettendorf, a village then belonging to the Margraviate of Bayreuth, afterward under Prussian sovereignty, but at present incorporated with the parish of Frauenaurach in the Bavarian district of Erlangen. His father, John Leonard Kalb, was the son of Hans Kalb, yeoman, of Leinburg, near Altdorf, and figured in the church records of Frauenaurach as " sojourner and peasant of Huettendorf." On the 24th of April, 1715, he married Mrs. Margaret Putz, of Huettendorf, whose maiden name was Seitz, and her birthplace Eschenbach. The issue of this marriagie, besides our hero, already named, were 1 two sons, of whom the eldevSt,* George, born November 15, 1718, died as a peasant at Stadeln, near Fuertb, while the youngest, Andrew, born the iVth of January, 1727, inherited the homestead at Huettendorf. John passed his childhood in his father's house, and received his earliest schooling at Kriegenbronn. Then he became a waiter, and as such, when barely sixteen years of age, he went abroad.* At this point his trace is lost for years. There can be but little doubt that he soon found his way to France, and cast his lot with military men, for about the close of the year 1743 the peasant boy Hans Kalb turns up as Jean de Kalb, lieutenant in he regiment Loewendal of French infantry.^ IIow he reached these foreign parts, and how he achieved his position there, I have not succeeded in ascertaining; nor is it probable that any authentic clue to the mystery will ever be discovered.

Throughout the last century, more than at any other time, the line of distinction between the character of an adventurer and that of a hero is very dim, often scarcely discernible ; and the antecedents of many a man who, at a subsequent stage of his career has scaled the heights of fame, are checkered with alternate displays of either. The force of circumstances seems to have thrust Kalb into the path of adventure in early life, while his staid and sober disposition tended to impel him in the opposite direction. It is very clear that his advancement was facilitated by his assumption of nobility, and in the highest degree probable that it was achieved by some act of gallantry in the face of the enemy. But where and how he acquired the manners and the knowledge necessary to maintain his ground, is a question difficult to answer. If he had entered a regiment commanded by Frenchmen, the inference would be that he was enabled to sustain his role by the limited acquaintance of the French officers of that day with German society and habits. But we find him in a corps, which, though enlisted under French colors, was officered almost exclusively by German noblemen, thus bringing him into contact with men who must have had an accurate knowledge of the German nobility, and some of whom may have belonged to tlie same province, or at least may have been connected with the landed gentry of that neighborhood by the ties of blood or friendship.

Kalb's assumption of a title not legally belonging to him is not at all surprising, in view of the fact that none of the armies of that day admitted the claims of a commoner to promotion, and that shortly before the breaking out of the French revolution (in 1781) the privilege of holding commissions in the army was restricted to nobles of at least four ancestors.' Indeed, the nobility of that period may be said to have comprised the whole of its good society. Even Frederick the Great went so far as to attribute to that order a higher sense of honor and a more profound insight into the art of war and the mystery of statecraft, and to limit the appointment of untitled men to important offices to the most exceptional cases. ISTor did the slighted classes resent their subordination, or regard it as anything worthy of comment. Puetter, the celebrated jurist of Goettingen, a contemporary of Kalb, always felt himself especially honored when some count or baron addressed him, or even vouchsafed to chat with him during the lazy hours of the bathing season at Pyrmont. It is well known that Goethe was profoundly flattered at being admitted to the edifying conversation of some obscure prince at Karlsbad, and his annals record as preeminently noteworthy that the Prince of Reuss, a potentate who but for this mention'would have gone to his grave unknown to posterity, always honored him with " an affable and gracious demeanor." A hundred such histances might be cited to show the peculiar fascination exercised by the purely factitious blazon of nobility even upon the leading minds of that era. As a partial compensation for this injustice the favored class of that day good-naturedly acquiesced in the nobihty of any one who managed to assume the title and the external badges of the order, without inquiring closely into his pedigree. This was particularly the case in France, where men where just awakening to a sense of the absurdity of these prejudices. Hence that swarm of adventurers who wormed their way into these circles of the quality, where they were generally tolerated, and often petted, until some caprice or accident hurled them back into their original oblivion.

Like hundreds before and after him — of whom St. Arnaud and Persigny may serve as examples — Kalb adopted the means best calculated to lift him out of the narrow confines of his native condition into a more advantageous position. Regarding this step in the light of his time, it cannot be judged too mildly. The title of nobility was simply the password which unlocked the world to him, the indispensable startingpoint for all fui'ther operations. One more scruple on his part, and the world would probably have gained a sturdy yeoman, but lost a hero !

Be that as it may, our hero is henceforth Baron de Kalb. the Kalb of history. The regiment formed by Count Loewendal on the first of September, 1743, to which, about the close of the same year, we find him attached as lieutenant, was then stationed in Flanders, and shared in the brilliant though ultimately barren victories won by the French armies under Marshal Saxe over the united forces of the English, Dutch, and Austrians.

The war of the Austrian Succession, theretofore confined to Germany, was just then assuming European dimensions. France, true to her ancient policy of hostility to Austria, had entered into the contest in 1740, merely as the ally of the elector Albert of Bavaria, in opposition to the pretensions of Maria Theresa; in 1744, however, she openly declared war against Great Britain and Austria. To drive the English out of the Netherlands, Louis XV. himself entered Flanders, opened the campaign with the siege of Menin, which surrendered after a brief resistance, and proceeded to invest Ypres and Furnes, which were also speedily reduced. The Loewendal regiment took a prominent part in these three operations. When the Austrians invaded Alsace in considerable force, Louis resolved to conduct 40,000 of the flower of his victorious Flemish army to the support of Marshal Coigny on the Rhine. At Metz, however, the king fell dangerously ill. The French, instead of driving the enemy across or into the Rhine, frittered away their forces in exhausting marches, futile manoeuvres, and petty engagements. One of the latter was the brilliant attack upon the village of Augenheim, in which again the Loewendal regiment gained peculiar distinction. The French took the place on the 23d of August, 1744, after a determined resistance on the part of the Austrian grenadiers and Hungarians, but gave the Prince of Lorraine time, upon the news of the irruption of Frederick IL into Bohemia, to make good the passage of the Rhine without molestation, and then to march upon Prague by way of Swabia and the Upper Palatinate. Instead of pursuing the enemy, the French contented themselves with the conquest of the

Brisgow, and concluded the campaign in November, 1744, with the taking of Freiburg, under the walls of which alone they lost twelve thousand men. In this siege, also, the Loewendal regiment was engaged, so that in the course of a single year, Kalb had a share in three sieges and one hotly-contested battle.

In the following year, 1745, his regiment rejoined the army of Marshal Saxe in the Netherlands. At the battle of Fontenoy, fought May 11, 1745, it formed a part of the reserve which was under the command of Loewendal himself; and in pursuance of this victory, which was mainly brought about by the gallantry of the foreign regiments, it assisted at the capture of Ghent, Oudenarde, Ostende, and Nieuport. In fact, if we except the battles of Lafeld and Raucoux, there is hardly a decisive event in the course of these campaigns in which the regiment was not distinguished. Thus, in 1746, it was active at .the reduction of Huy and Namur. In 1747 it shared in the taking of Ecluse and Sar de Gand, and in the still more celebrated storming of Bergen op Zoom, which brought its commander the marshal's baton ; in 1748 it aided in the siege and capture of Mastricht, at the close of which the French, exhausted by the war, purchased the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle by the surrender of all their conquests in the Netherlands.

It was Kalb's good fortune to receive his military training in the school of Marshal Saxe, the greatest captain of Europe in the period intervening between the career of Prince Eugene and that of Frederick the Great, and whom the latter venerated as the " professor of all the European generals." But Loewendal too was a general fitted to stand beside the ablest chieftains of the age, and particularly eminent in the

LIFE OF KALB.

art of reducing fortifications. From the subordinate position occupied by our hero, it is but natural that his name does not figure in the reports of this war; but there is evidence in papers stiil extant that he was even then a diligent and energetic officer, occupying all his leisure moments in the study principally of the modern languages, and of the higher branches of mathematics as applied to the art of fortification and to the internal organization of various bodies of troops. Under these circumstances he could not fail to attract the attention of his superiors, and was not only assigned to services of importance, but rapidly promoted. In 1747 he was made captain and adjutant, and also charged with the duties of an " officer of detail."

This designation was peculiar to the French army of the eighteenth century, and combined the offices of general manager and judge of the regiment. It was for the incumbent to superintend all its affairs, from the most trivial minutiae of daily routine to the most important points of discipline and jurisprudence. The colonel gave the regiment his name and was its representative abroad, the officer of detail controlled its internal administration. He conducted the correspondence with the commanding general and the minister of war, reported the condition of the men, made requisitions to meet their wants, scrutinized and expounded the articles of war — of which each regiment then had its own — vindicated their rights as against their superiors, suggested rewards and punishments, and acted, in short, as the virtual head of the regiment.

A position at once so honorable to a young officer, and so responsible, could be well filled only by a man of intelligence, energy, and integrity. It was occupied by Kalb during almost the entire duration of the peace which preceded the

Seven Years' War. His regimecrt was in garrison at Pfalzburg and Cambray. Our hero was not only studious of faithfully performing the duties of his office, but also endeavored, as far as in him lay, to correct existing abuses, and to infuse coherence and humanity into the barbarous and contradictory codes by which his own and other regiments were governed. The articles of war, or capitulations, adopted at the formation or subsequent reorganizations of the various regiments of the French array, produced an anomalous state of things replete with doubt and incongruities. Every regiment was a close corporation, a petty state within itself, and of course excessively jealous of its *' rights and franchises." What in one regiment was enjoined by the law, was punished in another as a crime. Every " Capitulation," was an independent treaty between the King of France of the one part, and the foreign soldiers of the other. The latter sold their services in consideration of the most favorable stipulations and privileges, which the former accorded lavishly or sparingly, according to the urgency of his military necessities. Thus, each regiment occupied a position of its own, and its discipline frequently came into conflict with that of the rest of the army. In spite, or rather in consequence of the most precise directions in reference to discipline, arms, uniform, subsistence, and police, in peace and war, doubts and difficulties frequently arose, which were passed upon by the minister of war on the report of the officer of detail.

Kalb devoted himself to this portion of his task with the greatest zeal, endeavoring either to resolve his doubts by taking the advice of his colleagues in other foreign regiments, or, failing that, to settle important points by the decision of the minister himself To give an instance among many — a court-martial of liis regiment had condemned to death a deserter who, after having sold his uniform in a foreign country, had returned to France, and been arrested. A minority of the judges dissented, and voted for the gauntlet, on the ground that capital punishment was only incurred where the deserter was arrested out of the kingdom. On the 20th of August, 1751, Kalb submitted the case to the minister of war, Count d'x4.rgenson, who, on 21st of September, decided in favor of the milder sentence, on the ground of the ordinances of the regiment. The independent jurisdiction of the regimental courtmartials often led to the most intolerable abuses. In the absence of a regular course of procedure, particularly in police matters, the accused was often exposed to the arbitrary cruelty of narrow-minded judges. Kalb did what he could to redress these grievances, and corresponded wdth the officers of detail of all the other German regiments in the service, with the view of approximating harmony in the distribution of punishments. Thus, for instance, it was the rule with most of the regiments, that public women detected in the barracks fell under the jurisdiction of the colonel. The latter usually had them publicly whipped by the very soldiers in whose company they had been caught. It was revolting to the men to be made the instruments of such a chastisement, and they often vented their aversion to so sudden an exchange of the functions of a paramour for those of the beadle, in acts of flagrant insubordination. On one occasion of this kind in Nancy, in 1748, three grenadiers were hung for mutiny. Though unsuccessful in his efibrts to bring about the total abolition of this degrading punishment, Kalb at least effected the dispensation of the men of his own regiment from being the instruments of it/ 1*