Friedrich von Steuben: A Padded Resume, Valley Forge and the Blue Book

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was born in 1730 in Magdeburg, Prussia, the son of a royal engineer, and at 14 watched the 1742 siege of Prague. He joined the Prussian army at 17, was wounded in the Seven Years' War, became an aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great and joined a military class taught by the king. In 1763 peacetime cuts and a rival ended his career. He spent 11 years as court chamberlain for the small principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, gaining the title of baron and deep debts. In Paris, seeking loans, he was introduced by the French war minister to Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, who offered him only an unpaid volunteer post. Rumors of homosexuality pushed him to accept, and Franklin introduced him to George Washington as a lieutenant general of the King of Prussia.

He landed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in late 1777 with his greyhound Azor and an entourage in red uniforms, and nearly faced arrest. At Valley Forge in February 1778 he moved latrines downhill from kitchens, laid out tents in rows, and imposed daily kit inspections. He trained a model company of 120 men who then trained the regiments, writing drills in French that Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens translated. His Blue Book served as the army drill manual until 1814. He served on the court martial of John Andre and commanded a division at Yorktown. He adopted aides Benjamin Walker and William North as his heirs, became a U.S. citizen, and died in November 1794.

• When his German and French curses ran out, he had his aides swear at the troops in English.
• Before his training, many American soldiers used bayonets for chopping wood and cooking meat.
• At Stony Point in 1779 Americans took a British fort at night with unloaded muskets.
• He called his ragged soldiers his sans-culottes and co-founded the Society of the Cincinnati.
• Congress granted him a $2,500 annual pension and land in Oneida County, New York, after debts forced him to sell his New Jersey estate.