origin, and not, as is usually stated, of Brahuic extraction. They
belong to the Ahmadzai branch of the Mirwari clan, which originally
emigrated from Oman to the Kolwa valley of Mekran. The khan of Kalat,
Mir Mahmud Khan, who succeeded his father in 1893, is the leading
chieftain in the Baluch Confederacy. The revenue of the khan is
estimated at nearly L60,000, including subsidies from the British
government; and an accrued surplus of L240,000 has been invested in
Indian securities.
See G. P. Tate, _Kalat_ (Calcutta, 1896); _Baluchistan District
Gazetteer_, vol. vi. (Bombay, 1907). (T. H. H.*)
KALAT-I-GHILZAI, a fort in Afghanistan. It is situated on an isolated
rocky eminence 5543 ft. above sea-level and 200 ft. above the plain, on
the right bank of the river Tarnak, on the road between Kabul and
Kandahar, 87 m. from Kandahar and 229 m. from Kabul. It is celebrated
for its gallant defence by Captain Craigie and a sepoy garrison against
the Afghans in the first Afghan War of 1842. In memory of this feat of
arms, the 12th Pioneers still bear the name of "The Kalat-i-Ghilzai
Regiment," and carry a special colour with the motto "Invicta."
KALB, JOHANN ("BARON DE KALB") (1721-1780), German soldier in the
American War of Independence, was born in Huttendorf, near Bayreuth, on
the 29th of June 1721. He was of peasant parentage, and left home when
he was sixteen to become a butler; in 1743 he was a lieutenant in a
German regiment in the French service, calling himself at this time Jean
de Kalb. He served with the French in the War of the Austrian
Succession, becoming captain in 1747 and major in 1756; in the Seven
Years' War he was in the corps of the comte de Broglie, rendering great
assistance to the French after Rossbach (November 1757) and showing
great bravery at Bergen (April 1759); and in 1763 he resigned his
commission. As secret agent, appointed by Choiseul, he visited America
in 1768-1769 to inquire into the feeling of the colonists toward Great
Britain. From his retirement at Milon la Chapelle, Kalb went to Metz for
garrison duty under de Broglie in 1775. Soon afterwards he received
permission to volunteer in the army of the American colonies, in which
the rank of major-general was promised to him by Silas Deane. After many
delays he sailed with eleven other officers on the ship fitted out by
Lafayette and arrived at Philadelphia in July 1777. His commission from
Deane was disallowed, but the Continental Congress granted him the rank
of major-general (dating from the 15th of September 1777), and in
October he joined the army, where his growing admiration for Washington
soon led him to view with disfavour de Broglie's scheme for putting a
European officer in chief command. Early in 1778, as second in command
to Lafayette for the proposed expedition against Canada, he accompanied
Lafayette to Albany; but no adequate preparations had been made, and the
expedition was abandoned. In April 1780, he was sent from Morristown,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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