The Corner

French Heroes

 John, I did not see Baron de Kalb on the list of French soldiers who died fighting for our independence. Kalb was an ethnic German, but he spent his life in the French army. He died at the disastrous battle of Camden, fighting long after Horatio Gates had fled. He was bayoneted many times. Lord Cornwallis said he was sorry to see him in such a state; Kalb answered that he died as he wished to, fighting for liberty.

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.
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