Scrapbook and diary: Mary Magruder,1886-1887

colonies had been glad tidings to Choiseul, but he could not get at the true condition of things. His agents in Holland and England sent unsatisfactory reports; they were not, probably, the kind of men to form an intelligent opinion after carefully sifting all rumors and reports. Choiseul came to the conclusion that if there was any reality in the news from America, he must send some one there; no vulgar spy or mere inquirer, but a man capable of judging for himself not only of the importance of the reported dissatisfaction, but of the true object sought by the colonists and of the available resources of the country in case armed resistance was contemplated. To find such an agent was no easy matter. The Duke de Broglie, under whose orders De Kalb had served, suggested him as the fittest person for such a mission. He described him as "a scholar well versed in several language, * * * an intelligent, zealous and accomplished soldier, fully capable of forming a correct estimate of the military strength of an enemy, in whose judgment implicit reliance might be placed."

MARRIAGE OF DE KALB.

De Kalb, in 1764, had married the beautiful daughter of Peter Van Robais, a wealthy retired cloth manufacturer, whose grandfather had been ennobled as a reward for the improvements he had introduced in the cloth manufacture of France. The young husband, passionately attached to his bride, and possessing the means to live in ease and comfort since his wife's dowry, added to his own little fortune of 52,000 francs, formed a capital of near 200,000 francs, retired from active serviee [service] with a pension as lieutenantcolonel of infantry. But neither the true love he bore his wife, and which continued unchanged to the hour of his death, nor the pleasures and comfort which wealth may give, would satisfy this man of action, this soldier ever thirsting for military glory and distinction. In 1765-66 he was seeking the appointment of brigadier of the German troops then being raised for service in Portugal. After long delays the project of raising foreign troops was abandoned by Portugal, and DeKalb continued to chafe against the inactivity to which the general peace condemned him. In 1767 his father-in-law died and DeKalb and his wife found themselves the owners of ever half a million francs—a handsome fortune for those times.

DE KALB SENT ON A MISSION TO AMERICA.

It was at this juncture his name was suggested to De Choiseul. On the 2d of February, 1767, De Kalb received a letter from the War Department, advising him that his name had been placed on the list of officers who were about to make a survey of the frontier lines; said list was to be submitted to the minister. This was followed, in August of the same year, by a letter from the minister's office announcing the final appointment, and advising De Kalb that his post would be at Dunkirk; that he should examine the maritime coast from that port to Calais, and report the condition thereof. De Kalb repaired [reported] immediately to the ministerial bureau to get his final instructions, and was much surprised when the private secretary informed him that his destination was changed, and the Duke intended to employ him on an important secret mission. An interview with De Choiseul followed when this mission was revealed. Colonel De Kalb was to go to Amsterdam, there to investigate the reports concerning the British colonies, and should these reports appear to him worthy of credit to take proper steps to go to the colonies in person. There he was to satisfy himself whether the dissatisfaction waa ss [was as] widespread as reported; whether the colonists actually contemplated separation from England; what resources they had at command, and what assistance they required in material of war or in experienced officers. De Kalb was inclined to decline this mission, the difficulties of which he did not underrate, and which did not satisfy his craving for brilliant military deeds. The minister insisted: he had selected him advisedly, he said, as the most competent person for this difficult undertaking, which the service of the King required, and which would be a strong claim to his (De Kalb's) advancement.

De Kalb finally accepted, and started with brief delay for Holland. He went the rounds of the seaports of that country, collecting information to be compared with that sent him by his agents in England. The result was not conclusive. While it was generally held that the withdrawal of the stamp act had put an end to the complaints of the colonists, persons from America assured him that all was not over; that the temporary lull would be followed by a storm should England make any attempt to encroach upon the liberties of the colonists. De Kalb made his report. His conclusions were that the troubles were adjusted, though not finally. He saw no immediate necessity for proceeding to America, yet held himself in readiness if the minister should think his departure imminent. Choiseul understood the English colonial question better than most of his contemporaries —better, perhaps, than the British government. He saw clearly that the attempted oppression which had roused the colonists to a degree of exasperation had caused them to realize their strength and power. Any attempt at coercion would have brought on an immediate conflict, and that had been avoided, but the concessions obtained, while satisfactory in so far that they were a victory, did not guarantee the future. England evidently had adopted a temporizing policy, without renouncing the project of making her colonies pay the greater part of the enormous debt contracted during her European wars. The day she would attempt again to carry out this project she would find still greater resistance, and a bitter feeling resulting from the fact that she had attempted to delude the colonists. It was only a question of time—the conflict must come. The minister ordered De Kalb to proceed to America, there to ascertain what preparatoins were being made for this conflict, and whether events could be hastened by proffers of assistance.

Such was the object of De Kalb's first mission to America. In all his instructions and letters Choiseul spoke in the name of the King; De Kalb, therefore, was eager to serve "His Majesty," and the secrecy required seemed a very natural and necessary policy. Yet the wily minister was playing a game which might have cost him his head, and which did cost him his place some years later.

DE KALB'S FIRST LETTERS.

De Kalb's letters to Choiseul show from the very first that the Duke de Broglie had not overrated his power of observation and the soundness of his judgment. To a graphic account of the state of things in the colonies and of the grievances and hopes of the people he adds his own conclusions, arrived at after a careful sifting of facts, and the correctness of these conclusions has been fully demonstrated by subsequent events. But the wonder is in the rapidity of his observations. He represented to the minister that the colonies in their present condition (1768) could not resist force, but that they believed the importance of their commercial relations with the metropolis would protect them from anything like actual coercion. They were little disposed, he said, to accept proffers of foreign aid to shake off the British yoke, for such assistance might be still more dangerous to their liberties than the attempt at arbitrary measures made by England. These remarks be made in the first letter, dated January 15, 1768, three days after his arrival at Philadelphia. A few days after this he wrote still more fully, giving a most graphic and true picture of the condition of affairs and of the temper of the Americans. He saw the possibility of an open rupture, but could not believe the English government so blind to its own interests as to provoke this rupture.

NEARLY FROZEN TO DEATH.

From Philadelphia De Kalb proceeded to New York. His voyage, for such it was in those days, was attended with more danger than his trip across the ocean had been. While crossing the sound to Staten Island, on the fifth day after his departure, he encountered a snow-storm of great violence. The open scow in which he had taken passage

with three other travelers was sunk on a sand-bank, and the whole party remained there, without selter, until the next morning. Their rescuers had to carry them, "like so many logs," says De Kalb. One of the boatmen died from exposure, and all of the party except the Baron suffered loss of limbs, fingers or toes. The old soldier, on arriving at the nearest house, where they were given such care as was possible until the arrival of a doctor, asked for a cold bath, into which he plunged, to the people's great amazement, and stayed in it one hour. Getting into a warm bed after this, he slept so soundly that the doctor mistook him for a dead man. On the same day De Kalb resumed his journey with no other damage than heels and the right hand slightly frostbitten. But he had met with a serious mishap; he had lost his dictionary, that is the key to the cipher he used in his correspondences with the Duke de Choiseul. Luckily he found a copy of the book, of the same edition, in New York. This cipher, the most difficult to penetrate, since it is a selection by previous agreement of words taken in a certain order from the pages of a book of which each correspondent has an exactly similar copy. De Kalb used also this cipher in his correspondence with his wife.

DE KALB STUDYING THE COLONIES.

Once in New York, De Kalb devoted three weeks to a closer study of the important questions at issue. During this time he made the acquaintance of the leading men of the city, as he had done in Philadelphia, and secured correspondents who would keep him regularly posted after this return to Europe. His first report to De Choiseul was made on the 21st of February. He pointed out clearly the difficulties attending the settlement of the existing differences between England and her colonies, unless the former recognized the constitutional right of the colonists to assess their own taxes, and even then, he concludes that "this country will soon be too powerful to be governed from so far." He considers the possibility of England yielding the right of taxation. It would be necessary, then, that the King should address his request to each province separately, or that these should be represented in the English Parliament. The first alternative is scarcely practicable, and the colonists would reject the second, not only because it would involve heavy expense, but they knew that they would find a majority against them, and representation would necessarily lead to the colonies being committed to take part in the wars England or the elector of Hanover might engage in. The colonists would be willing to form a parliament or general assembly on this continent, but this would be creating a power dangerous to the crown. After considering the various phases of the question De Kalb says prophetically: "There is so great a spirit of individual independence and license in this country that, beyond all doubt, if the provinces had the facility of communication through their deputies, and their common interests came under discussion they would soon form an independent State. And this shall happen in time." De Kalb next visited the provinces of New England, and tarried some time in Boston, where, as in other cities, he made friends and secured trustworthy correspondents. He returned to France in the month of June, 1768, his tour of observation having lasted about six months.

HIS OPINIONS OF AMERICA.

De Kalb came among a people struggling for their liberties to see whether they had any intention to rebel against a government of whose tyrannical measures they complained. Had he found that intention to exist he would have offered them help in the name of his government. But the grievances of the colonists were not yet beyond redress; open rebellion had not been even hinted at and there was no desire for foreign intervention. His mission resulted in a careful study of a new country, and of a people whose future greatness his observant eye already detected, and in his establishing friendly personal relations with eminent men, who in the years that followed communicated to him their fears and their hopes—men whose patriotism would lead them, inevitably, he foresaw, to risk all for the independence of their country. If this was the work of a spy, the term ceases to be opprobrious, and well may an eminent Frenchman, in a recent letter to a friend in Baltimore, say: "Should the Baron De Kalb be simply Kalb, the name is nevertheless so glorious that the baronial family of the De Kalbs, if they still exited, should feel proud of counting him as one of their members!

DE KALB RETURNS TO EUROPE.

On his return to Europe De Kalb addressed to the Duke De Choiseul a memoir, in which he reviewed the events that had come under his observation, pointed out to the minister the difficulties which would attend any attempt at foreign interference in the AngleAmerican conflict, and affirmed that the only policy to be followed by France was to await patiently the inevitable rupture between the English colonies and their metropolis, which he saw in the near future. Choiseul was disappointed. With him the wish had been father to the throught, and he had expected an invitation to immediate action. He refused to see De Kalb, and contented himself with sending him an order for ten thousand livres (or francs) for expenses incurred and services rendered. As De Kalb was six months on his errand, and besides had lost some two thousand francs and his personal effects in the mishap at Staten Island, this certainly does not look like the reward of a man who works for money only. Choiseul, however, was not long in satisfying himself of the correctness of his agent's views: their relations were resumed, and until 1770, when he left the cabinet in disgrace, the minister continued to depend on De Kalb for information and advice cocnerning the British colonies.

IMPORTANT SERVICES TO AMERICA.

We shall now see De Kalb in a new role. The fall of the minister did not induce him to give up a cause in which his sympathies were enlisted in the highest degree. The march of events was soon to take a more decisive turn, and our impatient general was destined to play a most active par in Paris as the intermediary of the Americans before going to place his sword at the service of a cause which he connected closely with the idea of a national revenge against England. During his first visit to America De Kalb had made the acquaintance of some of the leading men in the colonies: he had secured correspondents in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, New York and Boston, and, as we have seen, Choiseul relied on him to the last for news from America. When matters came to an issue in 1776, therefore, he was naturally the right man to espouse the interests of the Americans and to enlist in their favor the sympathies of French noblemen and adventurous officers seeking distinction. We should not forget that the philosophers of the 18th century had instilled new ideas in the minds of the French, and that some of the warmest advocates of individual liberty and of the "rights of man" belonged to that artistocratic class which gave the most victims to the bloody French revolution a few years later. They did not dream of a republic. They were devoted to their King, but they had adopted liberal views, and they proved their sincerity when the time came by giving up voluntarily privileges long enjoyed by their ancestors. The gentlemen who so nobly aided us in our struggle for independence were mostly of this class, and their motives were a combination of three passions: liberal enthusiasm, hatred of England, and love of military glory and adventure. Such were the nen[men] whom De Kalb gather round him. That he was looked up to as the head of the movement there cannot be any doubt. The only mystery hanging over this connection with American affairs previous to his coming with Lafayette is that, while it is certain that he received news regularly from America, not a line has been found in his papers to show who his corresopndents were. The only reasonable inference is that, fully aware of the consequences of discovery to his American friends, he destroyed their letters and never

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confided their names to any one. His secret was buried with him. It is singular, however, that after the Revolution some of those patriotic correspondents did not disclose the part they had taken in this secret work. Silas Deane's letters speak of De Kalb as a stranger just presented and recommended to him, and there is nothing to show that a previous acquaintance existed; but there must have been other Americans of note, especially in Boston, who knew who this stranger was.

DE KALB AND LAFAYETTE.

The mistake has generally been made that De Kalb was brought over by Lafayette; that he formed part of the latter's suite. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The longwished-for rapture between England and her colonies having come at last, the French ministry was eager to encourage and assist the revolutionists provided this could be done by occult means so as not to give England grounds of compliant, for France was not ready for war. Besides, the young King, Louis XVI, was peacefully inclined, and his consent was obtained only when it was represented to him that if England succeeded in too easily quelling the rebellion of her American subjects, she would, it was most likely, turn her forces against the French and Spanish possessions. It was decided to send an expedition openly destined to reinforce St. Domingo and other colonies. De Kalb, strongly recommended by the Broglies, received his commission as brigadier-general. He concluded, however, to await the arrival of the American agent, Silas Deane. His first interview with Deane took place on the 5th of November, 1776. From the first Deane was struck with the importance of securing the services of so capable and highly recommended an officer. He wrote on the very next day to his government, asking for instructions. He said of De Kalb: "This gentleman has an independent fortune and a certain prospect of advance here; but being a zealous friend to liberty, civil and religious, he is actuated by the most independent and generous principles in the offer he makes of his services to the States of America." The pressure of circumstances did not permit Deane to await further instructions, however, and on the 1st of December, 1776, he signed an agreement with De Kalb, accepting the services of the latter and fifteen other French officers. De Kalb was to receive a commission of major-general, to date from the 7th of November, 1776. In the meantime the Count De Broglie recommended to De Kalb's care and counsel a young kinsman of his, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, filled with enthusiasm and the love of glory, wished to place his maiden sword at the service of American independence. The rank, family connections and wealth of this young man made him a most valuable recruit. De Kalb saw at once all the advantages that would result to the American cause from his accession, and lost no time in impressing Deane with these advantages. The result was another agreement signed with the young Marquis and De Kalb, acting in their own behalf and that of ten others. Lafayette was granted the rank of major-general, to date from the 7th of December, 1776, while the date of De Kalb's commission, as in the former document, was given as the 7th of November. The Baron's seniority, therefore, was admitted beyond doubt. He was the leader of the expedition, which started in the month of April following, on a vessel purchased by Lafayette. The latter never presumed to outrank De Kalb, whose military experience and character he held in high esteem. When Congress, after refusing to recognize the appointments pledged by Silas Deane, made an exception in favor of Lafayette, the gallant young man was loath to consent to what he considered an act of injustice towards his older companion's superior claim. De Kalb urged and persuaded him to accept. In this, as in other circumstances, he showed himself a disinterested mentor and friend, such as Broglie's young kinsman would implicitly trust.

THE FRENCH OFFICERS IN AMERICA.

The French officers whose services had been engaged by Silas Deane were too numerous, and too many of them had been promised positions of a high grade. American affairs were little understood in Europe. The friends of the cause in France looked upon the revolution as a popular uprising, lacking organization, whose leaders were without military experience, and consequently doomed to defeat unless assisted by the superior wisdom of European officers. It was even thought that the supreme command should be vested in some tried soldier, possessing princely rank as well as military renown, and a complete plan for the organization of the American army had been prepared. De Kalb was intrusted with the task of impressing upon Congress the necessity of adopting these suggestions. The old soldier, however, soon saw the futulity of these views; he never mentioned the famous plan to his American friends. From his previous knowledge of the temper of the colonists he probably had opinions of his own on this question very different from those which inspired the concocting of such a document. Failing to make good his claims De Kalb had made up his mind to return to France with the other rejected officers, and had actually started, going by the way of Bethlehem to pay a visit to his Moravian countrymen, when he was overtaken by a messenger of Congress, who brought him the news of his appointment as a major-general in the service of the United States. His commission was dated from the 31st of July, 1776, the day of Lafayette's appointment. Congress, willing to do an act of justice, even offered to antedate his commission to the 7th of November, 1776, confirming the appointment made by Deane, but De Kalb declined. While unwilling to be outranked by his younger companion, he had no wish to outrank him.

DE KALB JOINS THE CONTINENTALS.

Here commences De Kalb's career as a soldier of the revolution. It was a short and not a brilliant career, for the opportunities failed him to acquire distinction on the field of battle. When the opportunity did come he rose to the height of a hero, winning the admiration of friends and foes. He fell, covered with wounds, in a desperate effort to retrieve the mistakes of another, his superior in command, his inferior in sound judgment and military genius, and in the manner of his death showed what he might have done had circumstances served him or had death spared him to see the cause of liberty triumphant. Yet his services, if they did not draw upon him the admiring eyes of the country, were not less great, and Washington, who prized modest usefulness as highly as the brilliant achievements of heedless bravery, was not long to discover the merit of this consummate soldier. He held him in high esteem as one who could be trusted implicitly in those trying circumstances when fortitude, a cool judgment and cautious prudence, backed by an indomitable courage, are required to turn defeat into victory, or to rob the enemy's triumph of its expected fruits. Immediately after receiving his commission, De Kalb joined the army then encamped near the battle-field of Germantown. Unfortunately for his hopes of immediate active service, all the divisions of the army had their chiefs, and he could not get a command. In the next month, November, he was sent with Generals Knox and St. Clair by Washington to decide on the expediency of retaining possession of Fort Mercer, at Red Bank, on the Jersey shore. This commission decided in the affirmative, the post was strengthened and the whole command entrusted to Gen. Greene. During the same month Gen. De Kalb was a member of the council of general officers called upon to determine whether the city of Philadelphia, then occupied by the English, could be successfully attacked or beleaguered. The Baron was one of the eleven officers who saw the impracticability of any such attempt with the inferior forces at command. As only four of the members were in favor of the project, it was abandoned.

GIVEN A COMMAND.

Soon after this Washington placed De Kalb in command of a division formed of two brigades of New England troops. There was

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not much chance of active operations, however, for the army ere long was to go into winter quarters at Valley Forge. Amidst the hardships of that memorable winter he preserved his equanimity, bearing deprivations and sufferings uncomplainingly. General Henry Lee, in his memoirs of the war, says of him: "He was sober, drinking water only; abstemious to excess; living on bread, sometimes with beef soup, at other times with cold beef; industrious, it being his constant habit to rise at five in the morning, light his candle, devote himself to writing, which was never intermitted during the day but when interrupted by his short meals or by attention to his official duty; and profoundly secret. He wrote in hieroglyphics, not upon sheets of paper, as is customary in camps, but in large folio books, which were carefully preserved, waiting to be transmitted to his unknown correspondent whenever a safe opportunity might offer." We have seen what that cipher was. De Kalb continued to report to De Broglie as on a former occasion he had reported to De Choiseul; he also wrote regularly to his wife, who had the key to his cipher. These letters, or rather these journals, reached safely their destination. The reports are on file in the French archives; the letters to his wife are in the possession of the Vicomtesse d'Alzac. Both are extensively quoted by the historian Kapp. De Kalb, so silent and uncomplaining in camp, wrote very minute and pathetic descriptions of the sufferings of the Americans; he described military operations, and commented freely on men and things.

A CROP OF COLONELS.

We are so accustomed to think of our revolutionary sires as heroes without blemish that the description of their little weaknesses strikes us as irreverent, unless, indeed, we take a philosophic view of mankind and we possess the sense of humor that reveals the laughable side of the heroic. Who can fail to recognize a picture from life, true in our day as it was a hundred years ago, in the Baron's humorous remarks about the ubiquitous colonel: "The very numerous assistant quartermasters are for the most part men of no military education whatever, in many cases ordinary hucksters, but always colonels. The same rank is held by the contractors-general and their agents. It is safe to accost every man as a colonel who talks to me with familiarity; the officers of a lower grade are invariably more modest. In a word, the army teems with colonels." His criticism was not confined to the Americans. He speaks with feeling of the continual jealousies and bickerings among the French officers, which caused much annoyance. "Lafayette," he writes, "is the sole exception. I always meet him with the same cordiality and the same pleasure. He is an excellent young man, and we are good friends. It were to be wished that all the Frenchmen who serve here were as reasonable as he and I. Lafayette is much liked. He is on the best of terms with Washington. Both of them have every reason to be satisfied with me also."

CRITICISM OF WASHINGTON.

His criticisms on the military operations and on the want of organization in the army, while correct in the main, were not altogether just. An old soldier, brought up among the trained armies of Europe and accustomed to maneuvre in the thickly settled country of the enemy, where resources of all kinds were abundant, he did not fully comprehend the task assumed by the leaders of the revolution and the necessities of a service altogether voluntary and consequently fraught with irregularity. Everything had to be created; everything had to be organized in the face of a wary foe. There were no reserved forces or supplies to repair a disaster. Nothing but the indomitable pluck of the Americans saved them from destruction. They were taught victory through defeat. De Kalb's usually correct judgment failed at first to read Washington's true character. In September, 1777, he wrote to Broglie: "I have no yet told you anything of the character of General Washington. He is the most amiable, kind-hearted and upright of men; but as a general he is too slow, too indolent, and too weak.

Besides, he has a tinge of vanity in his composition, and overestimates himself. In my opinion, whatever success he may have will be owing to good luck and to the blunders of his adversaries rather than to his abilities. I may even say that he does not know how to improve upon the grossest blunders of the enemy. He has not yet overcome his old prejudice against the French." If we remember that the Father of his Country had not, at that time, compelled the admiration of even his foes, that he had rivals whom many thought superior to him, we will not wonder at this harsh judgment from a foreigner. It was not long, however, before De Kalb found out his mistake, and in his subsequent letters he manifests readily his change of opinion. Compare the paragraph quoted with this other from a letter to President Henry Laurens, dated January 7, 1778, at Valley Forge: "He (Washington) did and does more every day than could be expected from any general in the world in the same circumstances, and I think him the only proper person, (nobody actually being or serving in America excepted,) by his natural and acquired capacity, his bravery, good sense, uprightness and honesty, to keep up the spirits of the army and people, and I look upon him as the sole defender of his country's cause."

LAFAYETTE'S FRIENDSHIP.

In February, 1778, a plan for an invasion of Canada was, without the sanction of Washington, adopted by Congress at the suggestion of Gen. Gates. Lafayette and Conway were designated to lead the expedition. The secret object of this choice was to detach the young Marquis from Washington's party, by giving him an opportunity to distinguish himself under circumstances especially gratifying to his pride as a Frenchman. Conway, Gates's right henchman, would be second in command, and thereby have certain chances of advancement. Lafayette's loyal disposition defeated the object of the plotters; he consulted Washington, in the first place, and, with the latter's sanction, in his letter of acceptance to Congress he stipulated that Major-General De Kalb, and not Conway, should be his colleague. "I think very firmly," said he in conclusion, "that for the good of the service and the success of the enterprise, it is of the highest importance and of an absolute necessity," Congress granted the request. Lafayette and De Kalb proceeded to Albany, where they had been preceded by Conway. Here they found that the hastilyformed project was impracticable; neither adequate forces nor sufficient resources were procurable. They were ordered to return.

IN BAD LUCK.

Ill-luck seemed to pursue the gallant old soldier, whose military career in Europe had been so successful. In May, 1778, he was seized with a violent fever. His life, for a time, was despaired of, and not until the middle of July was he able to leave his room. He took no part, therefore, in the evacuation of the camp at Valley Forge, in the entry of the American army into Philadelphia, or in Washington's march through New Jersey. As soon as he was able to travel he joined his command at White Plains, where he remained throughout the month of August; thence his division was sent to Fishkill. This division, since September 7, 1778, consisted of the Maryland troops, including the Delaware Battalion. In 1779 he was in the Highlands with Washington, and he is mentioned as taking part in a council of war, "advising with Generals Putnam, Smallwood, Muhlenberg and Gist what positions their troops should defend in case the British ventured an attack in force after their humiliation at Stony Point." De Kalb, whose division was represented in the assault on Stony Point, was complimented by Washington for the valor and good conduct of his men. In a letter to his wife, relating the circumstance, he remarks: "It is odd that in the two years I have been in service here, constantly with the army, the troops under my command—and I have always had very strong divisions—have not taken part in any battle or engagement, and that I myself, so to speak, have no seen a gun go off."

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COMPLAINTS OF DE KALB.

De Kalb was in winter quarters with Washington at Morristown during the unusually severe winter of 1779-80. The sufferings of the army were even greater than they had been at Valley Forge. Describing them, De Kalb remarks: "It may be truly said that a foreign officer, who was served in America as long as I have, under such adversities, must be either inspired with boundless enthusiasm for the liberties of the country or possessed by the demons of fame and ambition, or impelled by an extraordinary zeal for the common cause of the King and his confederates. I knew before I came that I should have to put up with more than usual toils and privations, but I had no idea of their true extent. An Iron constitution like mine is required to bear up under this sort of usage." The brave general must have been moved by all three of these motives: His whole career shows him to have been ambitious of fame; his warmest sympathies were enlisted in the cause of America, and his love for France, his adopted country, made the cause with which she had identified herself doubly dear to him.

He tells how the ink freezes in his pen as he sits writing close by the fire; how the snow in some place is piled twelve feet high, and the ice in the rivers is six feet thick. He names the prices of some of the necessaries of life, which are so absurdly high that the people of the late Southern Confederacy must have been well off as compared to the continentals. The General remarks, jocosely: "The barber's compensation would be present consume all my pay;" so he has made up his mind to shave himself. Being "all in rags," he proposes to go to Philadelphia to buy clothes, especially linen. He shows how the expenses of the foreign officers are so much greater than those of the Americans, for those "can go home on furlough and there recruit and re-equip themselves. Besides, they are assisted by their respective States with additional pay, with uniforms, and with such provisions as Congress does not furnish, such as tea, sugar, coffee and chocolate. The foreign officers have none of these little but acceptable privileges, and are, moreover, compelled to pay with six dollars what an American buys for one."

Steuben relates a story about favoritism in the army, to which no allusion is made by De Kalb in his letters. For the honor of Maryland it is hoped the brave German general was misinformed. "At the time De Kalb commanded the Maryland division," says the story, "the government of that State sent a stock of coffee, cognac, tea and sugar, articles then entirely out of the market, and, therefore, doubly prized by the officers. When the box arrived Gen. Smallwood, a brigadiergeneral, and as such De Kalb's subordinate, placed a watch over the supplies, with orders to allow no part of the contents to go into the hands of Gen. Kalb, his superior, on the ground that one who was not a Marylander had no title to a share!"

De Kalb's visit to Philadelphia was postponed at the desire of Gen. Washington, there being at the time no other major-general in camp. In January, 1780, Washington had appointed Gen. St. Clair to the chief command of a corps of 2,000 men, whose mission was to defend the camp and the headquarters at Morristown against attack, to cover the country bordering on the enemy's lines, to suppress all traffic with the city of New York, and to ascertain the position and the posts of the enemy along the coast of New Jersey and Staten Island; in short, to insure the safety of the American army. St. Clair having received a furlough, De Kalb was appointed on the 29th of February, 1780, to succeed him in this responsible command, and discharged its arduous duties during the entire month of March.

IN COMMAND OF THE MARYLAND LINE.

In the beginning of April the Maryland division received marching orders. By Washington's order De Kalb proceeded to Philadelphia to concert with with the board of war and the commissary and quartermaster-general the necessary arrangements for the provision and accommodation of the troops. The Maryland division broke their camp at Morristown and marched to Philadelphia. Here De Kalb superintended their equipment, and sent the infantry, numbering about 1,400 men, to Head of Elk, (now Elkton,) the northernmost point of Chesapeake bay, where they embarked on the 3d of May for Petersburg, Va., while the artillery, with the baggage and ammunition, proceeded south by land.

Detained by the board of war and of the treasury, De Kalb did not leave Philadelphia until the 13th of May: he was furthermore detained at Annapolis, waiting for moneys to be paid by the treasurer of the State of Maryland, and only arrived at Richmond on the 22d. He hastened to the rendezvous of the troops, which had been removed to Petersburg. The last transport of his division had just arrived, and he had to contend with many difficulties in putting them into marching order. He was very anxious about the fate of Charleston, being convinced that the succor to be brought by him would come too late. "Come what may, however," he writes to his wife, "I will not have the blame of any delay laid at my door." The promised wagons, which the State of Virginia was to furnish, were slow in coming in. DeKalb could only dispatch the first brigade of his little corps on the first of June. On the sixth he started the second brigade, with a few wagons to carry their tents, the men having to carry their own baggage. He brought up the rear with the third brigade on the 8th.

Before he left Petersburg the news of the capitulation of Charleston reached him. This contingency had been foreseen, however, and it only made the advance of the American forces more necessary in order to prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold outside of Charleston. But through a culpable negligence, no provision had been made by the State of North Carolina for the subsistence of the Federal troops, and the little army had to confront, from the start, privations that wore out their strength and increased daily the sick list. "The further southward the little corps penetrated the more difficult the march became. With every mile traveled the supply of provisions and transportation diminished." De Kalb stopped a few days at Hillsborough to give his exhausted men a muchneeded rest. He also hoped to meet there the promised militia of Virginia and North Carolina, but only a few men came. He resumed his march, and on the 5th of July he reached Wilcox's iron works, on Deep river, where he was brought to a positive halt for want of provisions. Resort had to be had to foraging parties, but the farmers were living upon the remnant of their last corn crop and had little to spare. The army barely escaped starvation. After several days passed in this precarious condition, De Kalb resolved to move to a section where provisions were more plentiful. He took up his line of march and encamped in the neighborhood of Buffalo Ford. Still, however, the supplies of grain were insufficient, and the only meat that could be procured was poor beef, daily driven out of the woods and cane breaks where the cattle had wintered. "Inactivity, bad nourishment, and the difficulty of preserving discipline have often proved fatal to troops where no immediate danger is apprehended, and have been the ruin of entire armies; but in this instance the assiduity of the officers, and the patience and fortitude of the rank are file, upheld the order and harmony of the command, and even the ardor of the individual soldier."

SUPERSEDED BY GATES.

De Kalb had been promised a plentiful supply of provisions and a respectable reinforcement of North Carolina militia, under Gen. Caswell, but he was disappointed in both. Disappointment seems, indeed, to have been his lot from the moment he entered the continental service. Here, at last, he had an opportunity to distinguish himself; he had been given the chief command of an army, small in numbers, but made up of good material, and intrusted with a mission of responsibility which could only be accomplished by a man uniting the caution and experience of an old commander with the