Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Steuben

Friedrich Wilhelm Steuben, Baron von , 1730-94, Prussian army officer, general in the American Revolution, b. Magdeburg. He served in the Seven Years War and was a general staff officer. In 1762 he became an aide to Frederick the Great. Later, he was court chamberlain for the prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. After leaving the prince's service he met (1777) Benjamin Franklin in Paris and was given letters of introduction to George Washington. Arriving in America, Steuben served with Washington at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778. He undertook the training of the Continental army, molding it into a powerful striking force. Congress made him army inspector general in May, 1778. The effect of Steuben's training was seen at the battle of Monmouth (June, 1778), when American forces who had begun the retreat under orders from Charles Lee rallied against the British on Washington's arrival. Steuben commanded in the trenches at Yorktown. He was later granted a pension by Congress and large tracts of land by various states.

Bibliography: See biographies by J. B. Doyle (1913, repr. 1970) and J. M. Palmer (1937, repr. 1966).

Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Von [Baron] (1730–1794), Revolutionary War general.Born at Magdeburg, Friedrich Steuben followed his father's path into the Prussian Army, eventually serving as an infantry officer, staff officer, and aide under Frederick the Great. Court life lured the young captain from the army in 1764, but the American Revolutionary War drew him back to military service. In 1777, the self‐proclaimed Lt. Gen. “Baron von” Steuben—who was neither a general nor a nobleman—arrived in Philadelphia and requested a commission in the Continental army. Americans soon found that if the Prussian had misrepresented his credentials, he did not exaggerate his talents.

After Congress accepted Steuben's offer to serve without rank in January 1778, he found the beleaguered Continentals at Valley Forge lacking the skill and knowledge of European regulars. Steuben consequently developed a system of drill that customized European methods to American needs, demonstrated its effectiveness on his personally trained “model company,” and eventually published its principal elements in Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (1779). By May 1778, he became inspector general, with the rank of major general. Though he also served in the field, Steuben's most significant military contribution remained the greater degree of professionalism he gave to Continental forces.

Bibliography

John M. Palmer , General von Steuben, 1937; repr. 1966.

J. Mark Thompson

Steuben, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von ˈst(y)ōōbən (1730–94) Revolutionary War army officer and inspector general, born into a German military family. Steuben was trained in the Prussian army, handling both field commands and administrative duties in the Seven Years War. Downsized out of the army and hounded by rumors about homosexuality, he went to Paris in 1777 to seek a military appointment. There he made contact with U.S. envoys, including Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, who gave him letters of introduction to Gen. George Washington. He came to America to volunteer his services and met Washington at Valley Forge; Washington named him inspector general and set him to drilling the troops wintering there. Steuben was so effective that Congress granted him both pay and the rank of major general. In 1780 he became Continental commander in Virginia with orders to expedite the movement of men and supplies to the Continental forces opposing Lord Charles Cornwallis in the Carolinas, but his efforts were stymied by the exhaustion of the troops and other problems. In 1781 he was replaced in Virginia by the Marquis de Lafayette. Steuben's mistaken insistence that Cornwallis would return to the Carolinas and his decision to lead his troops there to be ready for him led the Continentals to near mutiny before Steuben backed down. He commanded a division when Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown (1781); after the victory there, he returned to his position as inspector general and, in 1783, began to make plans for a postwar army. After the war, Steuben hoped to live graciously in New York, but his claims for payment were denied by Congress, and he lived in relative penury for the rest of his life.