By Den Ardinger 32° KCCH

Johann von Robais, Baron De Kalb (1721-1780) was one of the most respected foreign officers to fight for the American cause in the Revolutionary War.  He is remembered for his discipline, courage, and tragic death at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. His life reflects the rise of a self‑made soldier from peasant origins to European nobility, his deep commitment to Enlightenment ideals, and his documented ties to Freemasonry.

Johann von Robias was born June 29, 1721, in Hüttendorf, near Erlangen in present‑day Germany and came from a modest peasant family.  He left home at the age of sixteen and earned an officer’s commission in the Loewendal German Regiment of the French Army in 1743.  He distinguished himself in the War of the Austrian Succession in Flanders and later in the Seven Years’ War where he served as a Lieutenant Colonel and Assistant Quartermaster General in the Army of the Upper Rhine. This service earned him the Order of Military Merit in 1763 along with elevation to the French nobility with the title Baron De Kalb.  In 1764, he retired from active service, married Anna Elizabeth Emilie van Robais, a wealthy French heiress, and settled at Milon‑la‑Chapelle near Versailles.

In 1768, the French Foreign Minister, the Duc de Choiseul, sent De Kalb on a covert mission to the American colonies to assess the level of discontentment toward Britain.  His four‑month tour produced detailed reports praising the colonists’ “spirit of independence,” and he returned to France convinced that the American’s discontent was just. This mission planted the seed for his later involvement in the American Revolution.

Nine years later, in 1777, De Kalb returned to America along with his protégé, the young Marquis de Lafayette.  Congress appointed De Kalb a Major General, and he quickly became an admirer of George Washington, serving through the harsh winter at Valley Forge just outside Philadelphia.

He participated in the planned, but ultimately unsuccessful, 1778 expedition to Canada and later took command roles in the southern theater.

In 1780, De Kalb marched south to reinforce American forces at Charleston, but the city fell before he arrived.  He then joined American General Horatio Gates near Deep River, North Carolina. Although De Kalb urged caution, Gates insisted on attacking the British at Camden, South Carolina.

On August 16, 1780, the Battle of Camden became one of the worst American defeats of the war. Gates fled the field, but De Kalb remained, rallying his Maryland and Delaware troops and fighting fiercely until he was struck repeatedly by receiving eleven wounds according to accounts of the battle. He died three days later, on August 19, 1780, at age 59.

He was buried in Camden, South Carolina, where a monument now stands in his honor at 212 Broad Street.

De Kalb’s Masonic ties are better documented than those of many other Revolutionary officers. According to Encyclopedia Masonica, he was buried with full Masonic honors, and Lafayette himself later laid the cornerstone of a monument to De Kalb under the auspices of Kershaw Lodge in 1825.

While the exact lodge of his initiation is uncertain, Masonic historians believe he may have received his degrees in Army Lodge No. 79, chartered in 1780 for members of the Maryland Line.  This aligns with his long military career, his Enlightenment‑era social networks, and his close association with Lafayette who was also a Freemason.  De Kalb’s Masonic connections were part of the broader fraternity of Revolutionary‑era officers who shared ideals of liberty, civic virtue, and cosmopolitan brotherhood.

Baron De Kalb is remembered as a disciplined European officer who fought not for personal gain but out of genuine admiration for the American cause. His bravery at the Battle of Camden became legendary, symbolizing steadfastness in the face of overwhelming odds. His Masonic associations further place him within the intellectual and fraternal currents that shaped Revolutionary leadership.  His life, spanning from his humble peasant origins to his elevation to nobility and from being a secret agent to leadership as a Continental Army Major General, embodies the transatlantic character of the American Revolution and the global ideals that fueled it.

His titles include: Knight of the Royal Order of Military Merit of France, Baron de Kalb, Brigadier of the Armies of France, and Major General of the American Continental Army.

Major General Baron Johann de Kalb, more than a man, a Mason.