Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben: Revolutionary Hero
Most people tend to think of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, and folk heroes Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher when they think of heroes of the American Revolution. There is another individual whose vast contributions are too often overlooked, however: General Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben, later known more simply as Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.Von Steuben was born in the city of Magdeburg in what is today the country of Germany on September 17, 1730. He was born into a militaristic family, his father having been an engineer lieutenant himself in the military. He lived for a time in Russia with his family until he was ten years old, then returned to Germany. By the time he was seventeen years old, von Steuben was already an officer in the Prussian military. At one point he was even under the service of Frederick the Great.
For reasons that are today unclear, von Steuben was discharged from the army at the age of 33. In the year that followed he was granted the title of Baron (the German Freiherr) after having been in the court of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. He then found himself in France, where he was lauded by the French Minister of War, Count de St. Germain. Von Steuben was quickly recognized for his military ability. His General Staff training with the Prussian army led Germain to persuade him to fight with the colonists in America for the cause of liberty. Von Steuben subsequently met Benjamin Franklin who indeed found him to be a perfect candidate for the job of contributing his services to the Revolution.
After having had his credentials made to sound loftier than they actually were, Baron von Steuben arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on September 26, 1777. (He had previously been introduced in a letter to General Washington as a "Lieutenant General in the King of Prussia's Service" by Franklin.) He spent the winter in Valley Forge with Washington and his men, where he volunteered his services without rank or pay.
The army von Steuben found was a loosely organized, meager one with few comforts in the way of food and clothing. Although he didn't speak any English, he was able to communicate in French with some of the officers. Alexander Hamilton was one to assist in this area. The Baron would swear at the soldiers first in French and German, and then even have them cursed at in English by one of his aides for him.
He wrote a manual for the military training of soldiers called Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. Part of its successful implementation was because of his insistence that officers and soldiers be more closely associated. Traditionally officers had kept their distance from the soldiers because they felt that this would earn their respect. Von Steuben realized that the soldiers would learn to respect the officers more if they themselves were shown more respect. Officers became responsible for training the soldiers, and they also had to march and eat with them. These methods proved worthwhile: the soldiers began to have great admiration for their officers, rather than the resentment that they had often felt before.
Before the Baron arrived in America there were no set drills or patterns for doing things. Military maneuvers were handled differently from battallion to battallion. Von Steuben standardized these, so that the men began to have a certain professionalism. He introduced a discipline that they had not known before. Soldiers soon began to feel great pride in their service to the American cause.
Baron von Steuben's success in training the American soldiers of the revolution came about through his dedication to providing them with more adequate supplies as well. At one point he spent the whole of his personal income on his troops so that they may have clothing and better rations. He also introduced more sanitary conditions to the training grounds: food quarters and latrines were on opposite corners of the camps. Earlier there had been no such separation. The soldiers also loved his engaging personality, even though they couldn't understand him. He had a sense of humor and his willingness to have officers treat the soldiers with more respect and less distance won them over as well.
Von Steuben transformed this modest army into one that would eventually defeat the world's greatest military power of the day. The fruits of his efforts were realized later with victorious battles at Barren Hill and Monmouth. George Washington nominated him as Inspector General, and Congress later approved this nomination.
Baron von Steuben became an American citizen in 1784 and lived the rest of his life in upstate New York. He has been called "indispensable" to the cause of American liberty, second only to Washington in importance of individual military contribution. He is buried not far from Utica, New York, in a gravesite that bears this inscription: "Indispensable to the Cause of American Independence." Indeed, mein Herr.
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