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rally strong position at Clermont, and staying
there until the army should be in a better
physical condition, and should receive the
expected reinforcements. He went to the
council, prepared to advocate a retreating
movement to their former stronghold, yet,
according to the best evidence, he did not
carry out this intention. Gates, having repeated
to the assembled officers the information
concerning the enemy's strength obtained
from prisoners made during the
skirmish, added excitedly: "You know our
situation. What had we better do, gentlemen?"
There was a painful silence, broken
by Gen. Stevens with the answer: "We must
fight, gentlemen, it is too late; we can do
nothing else, we must fight." In a council of
war, the first advice is pretty sure to prevail
if it is in favor of action; De Kalb saw that no
one opposed Stevens's conclusion; his prudent
counsels on former occasions had been
disregarded; he remained silent.

The die was cast. There was nothing left
but to array the army in battle order. This
Gen. Gates did with promptitude, but he
committed a mistake which proved fatal and
was the main cause of our disaster. The
second brigade of Maryland, with the regiment
of Delaware, under Gen. Gist, was
placed on the right; the centre was held by
the North Carolina brigade of militia, under
Brigadier Caswell, whilst the Virginia militia,
led by Brigadier Stevens, formed the left.
Now, the British general had placed his well-
tried veterans on his right; none but regular
troops, inured to the dangers of battle, such
as were the Continental brigade, should have
been opposed to them. Moreover while the
Americans were numerically stronger by a
few hundreds, this advantage was more than
counterbalanced by the superiority of the
British in experienced and disciplined soldiers,
for they had 1,600 regulars and the Americans
less than one thousand. The fighting
qualities of the Continentals might make up
for this disparity if they were pitted against
the British regulars. The raw militia, which
formed our left, could not withstand
their shock. Col. Otho Williams, adjutant-
general, preceded our left in the
advance ordered for the purpose of inviting
the fire of the enemy and thus encouraging
the Virginia militia. The brave Stevens had
exhorted these to rely on the bayonet, and
was leading them in good order, when the
British general, observing the movement,
gave orders to lead into battle with the right.
The Virginians were overpowered and took
to flight after the first exchange of fire. In
vain Stevens tried to rally them; they fled,
throwing away their arms, and communicating
the panic to the North Carolina brigade.
The centre was broken without having
been engaged in action. Stevens, Caswell,
and Gates himself, who had taken his
post on the road between the line and the
reserve, struggled to stop the fugitives, but
their appeals were not listened to; they had
no cavalry to assist them in the attempt to
rally the panic-stricken men, the small force
under Armand not having returned after
their flight in the night, and the mortified
generals were swept away by the human
current.

POSITION OF THE MARYLAND LINE.

Meanwhile, De Kalb, who, being in charge
of the line of battle had taken his post on the
right, and Gist, who was in immediate command
of the Continental troops, held the
battle in suspense. Dixon's regiment of
North Carolinians held fast, and did their
duty nobly. Lieut.-Col. John Eager Howard
—another illustrious name in the roll of
Maryland's soldiers—at the head of Williams's
regiment drove the corps in front out
of line. Gist's brigade resisted the repeated
charges of the British under Lord Rawdon;
"bold was the pressure of the foe; firm as a
rock the resistance of Gist." Smallwood was
bringing up the first brigade of Maryland,
hitherto held in reserve, but his advance was
checked by Webster's; British regulars, who
had left the pursuit of the flying militia to
Tarleton's cavalry and some light troops.
Obstinate and fierce was the contest, Smallwood
attempting in vain to form a junction
with the main body, whose flank it
covered. Borne down by numbers, his
brigade receded, returned to the line of
battle, again gave ground, and again rallied.
Meantime, De Kalb, sure of his Marylanders,
ordered a bayonet charge, which he led in
person, on foot. They drove the enemy
before them like chaff, and for one moment
victory trembled in the balance, but Lord
Cornwallis concentrated his whole force for
a decisive charge. Our brave troops had
done all that the most exalted heroism could
attempt; physical strength was exhausted,
numbers prevailed and the day was lost.
The soldier, the patriot had done their duty
to the last; they had shown themselves
heroes; now nature claimed her right and
they were but men trying to save their lives
by flight. The pursuit was keen and pitiless.
The Marylanders lost over one-third of their
number in killed and wounded; the Delaware
regiment was nearly annihilated, and
Dixon's Carolinians suffered terribly. It
was as complete a defeat as the British could
have desired, but they, too, had suffered
much, and Cornwallis had paid too dearly for
his victory to exult over it.

DEATH OF DE KALB.

But, ere the rout took place, in the van of
that last fearful bayonet charge a hero had
fallen, his face towards the foe, his life's blood
oozing from eleven wounds. De Kalb had set
the example in this dreadful hand-to-hand
conflict, his stalwart arm dealing death at
every blow, and hewing his way through the
serried ranks of the enemy. At last his gigantic
frame was seen to totter and to fall,
like a mighty oak which has long baffled the
efforts of the storm, and whose roots slowly
lose their hold upon the moist soil. He was
not dead. His friend and aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-
Colonel Du Buysson, throwing himself
upon the prostrate form of the General, received
into his own body the bayonet thrusts
aimed at his chief. He cried out that this
was General De Kalb, and called upon the
British to spare him. The two were taken
prisoners and treated with every attention.
De Kalb survived but three days. In this last
hour, when the heart of the loving husband
and tender father must have been filled
with anguish at dying far from this dear
ones, the thoughts of the herioc old soldier
turned to his late comrades and to the cause
for which he had given his life. Collecting
his fast-ebbing strength, he dictated to Col.
Du Buysson a letter to Gen. Smallwood, who
succeeded to the command of his division,
expressing his sincere affection for his
officers and soldiers and his admiration for
their last heroic effort. He spoke with pride
of the praise their valor had elicited from
their visitors. Nor did he forget the Delaware
regiment and the artillery attached to
his division for their noble services on that
fatal day. Then, pressing the hand of his
faithful friend Du Buysson, he looked up
confidently, and, with a smile on his lips,
breathed his last. Death had no terrors for
him; he was ready to pass inspection before
the Supreme Commander and Judge; a devoted
husband and father, a faithful friend,
a brave soldier, and, above all, an honest
man. His conscience troubled him not, for
in whatever sphere of action he had been
placed he had done his duty.

Thus ended the checkered life of one
who, born a German, trained to war in the
gallant legions of France, blessed with a
happy home and the favors of fortune, had
crossed the seas to place his sword and his
experience at the service of republican
America.

BURIED AT CAMDEN.

De Kalb was buried by his victorious adversaries
with military and Masonic honors
at Camden, South Carolina. His grave is
marked by a monument erected by the citizens
in 1825, the corner-stone being laid by
Lafayette, during his Southern tour, on
March 10 of that year. Washington visited
De Kalb's grave in 1791 and as he stood over
it he said, "So, here lies the brave De Kalb;
the generous stranger who came from a distant
land to fight our battles and water with
his blood the tree of our liberty." The ceremonies
attending the laying of the cornerstone
of his monument by Lafayette were
touching. Levasseur, Lafayette's secretary,
says: "The General's hand resting upon the