French officer killed on American battlefield has statue in Camden

CAMDEN, S.C. (AP) — A French military officer killed on a South Carolina battlefield during the Revolutionary War has his statue unveiled in Camden, SC. A Sunday ceremony honored Johann de Kalb, who died in the August 1780 Battle of Camden after his horse was shot out from under him. British soldiers then shot and stabbed him. De Kalb was born in a German village and received a French military commission in the 1740s. He came to America in 1777 with the Marquis de Lafayette to fight for the patriots in the War for Independence. He was 59 years old when he died.

Prior to the statue unveiling, several German dignitaries joined local officials and others to lay a wreath at de Kalb's grave at Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Camden.

De Kalb's statue is at the newly opened Revolutionary War Visitor Center. The $5 million building opened earlier this year.