News From Around the South 10/20 to 10/27

SOUTH CAROLINA: Sword swap: Statue of general who died after Battle of Camden briefly disarmed for repair

A statue in Maryland’s capital honoring Maj. Gen. Baron Johann DeKalb is looking a little different lately.

The 139-year-old bronze statue on the south side of the State House grounds is missing the blade of DeKalb’s sword. Instead of looking like he’s leading troops into battle, the Revolutionary War hero, clasping just the sword handle, looks a bit like an old man shaking his fist at the sky.

Fear not.

The removal is part of regular conservation efforts rather than theft or vandalism of the monument.

“The statue was conserved in June of this year, and during that process, it was determined that the replacement sword blade on the statue needed to be removed due to condition issues,” Chris Kintzel, director of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property, said in an email.

“The statute receives conservation funding from the Maryland Military Monument Commission, and we work in conjunction with the Maryland Historical Trust/Maryland Department of Planning to arrange for its treatment, which is typically every two-three years,” Kintzel’s email said. “We are currently working with our partners to coordinate the installation of one of the replacement blades.”

DeKalb was a French general who fought with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Born Johann Kalb in Bavaria (southern Germany), he became Baron de Kalb — a noble title — in the French military, which got shortened in America to de Kalb or DeKalb, sometimes spelled Dekalb.

He served with Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge and was second in command under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates in the Carolina campaign. DeKalb led troops from Maryland and Delaware during the battle of Camden in South Carolina on Aug. 16, 1780, which was a British victory.

DeKalb and his troops kept fighting after the rest of the army fled. He was shot and bayoneted multiple times during that battle and died three days later.

The monument at Maryland’s capitol, dedicated in August 1886, cost $10,000 (more than $300,000 in 2025). Congress paid for the granite and bronze memorial, according to the Maryland Historical Trust.

Ephraim Keyser, a Marylander considered to be a prominent sculptor in his time, was hired to create the monument. The DeKalb monument is considered a “significant example” of Keyser’s work, according to Maryland Historical Trust records.

The sword blade itself is removable. The one that was removed this summer during conservation work was not the original, Kintzel said.

The original blade was vandalized twice in 1990, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. Kintzel added that the blade was stolen that year.

That same year, five replacement blades made of fiberglass were made, according to Kintzel. Maryland Historical Trust records credit Deborah Banker, a local artist hired by the State House Trust.

DeKalb is buried in Camden, about 35 miles from the South Carolina Statehouse, where he’s honored in several places.

That includes a 13-foot-tall monument at Bethesda Presbyterian Church — along East Dekalb Street. Fellow French officer Marquis de Lafayette, who sailed to South Carolina with DeKalb in 1777 to join the fight for independence, laid the monument’s cornerstone in 1825 during a return trip to the U.S., according to American Battlefield Trust.

Both the church and obelisk were designed by famed architect Robert Mills, a Charleston native. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

In the early 1900s, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a granite stone commemorating where DeKalb fell on the battlefield. And a statue of DeKalb, unveiled in 2021, stands outside the Revolutionary War Visitor Center in Camden.

SC Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.