Background
Baron von Steuben was born at Magdeburg, Prussia, on the 17th of September 1730, the son of William Augustine Steuben, also a soldier.
Baron von Steuben was born at Magdeburg, Prussia, on the 17th of September 1730, the son of William Augustine Steuben, also a soldier.
Friedrich was educated in the garrison towns Neisse and Breslau by Jesuits.
At fourteen he served as a volunteer in a campaign of the Austrian Succession War. He became a lieutenant in 1753, fought in the Seven Years' War, was made adjutant-general of the free corps in 1754 but re-entered the regular army in 1761, and became an aide to Frederick the Great in 1762. Leaving the army after the war, he was made canon of the cathedral of Havelberg, and subsequently was grand-marshal to the prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. In 1777 his friend, the count St Germain, then the French minister of war, persuaded him to go to the assistance of the American colonists, who needed discipline and instruction in military tactics. Steuben arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 1st of December 1777, and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer. In March 1778 he began drilling the inexperienced soldiers at Valley Forge; and by May, when he was made inspector-general, with the rank of major-general, he had established a thorough system of discipline and economy.
Results of his work were shown in the next campaign, particularly at Monmouth, where he rallied the disordered, retreating troops of General Charles Lee. His Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (1779) was of great value to the army. He was a member of the court-martial which tried Major John Andre in 1780, and after General Horatio Gates's defeat at Camden was placed in command of the district of Virginia, with special instructions "to collect, organize, discipline and expedite the recruits for the Southern army. " In April 1781 he was superseded in command of Virginia by La Fayette and later took part in the siege of Yorktown.
Retiring from the service after the war, he passed the last years of his life at Steubenville, New York, where he died on the 28th of November 1794.
New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey gave him grants of land for his services, and Congress passed a vote of thanks and gave him a gold-hilted sword in 1784 and later granted him a pension of $2400.
Generally, Von Steuben Day takes place in September in many cities throughout the United States. It is often considered the German-American event of the year. Participants march, dance, wear German costumes and play German music, and the event is attended by millions of people. The German-American Steuben Parade is held annually in September in New York City. It is one of the largest parades in the city and is traditionally followed by an Oktoberfest in Central Park as well as celebrations in Yorkville, Manhattan, a German section of New York City. The German-American Steuben Parade has been taking place since 1958. Chicago also hosts a von Steuben Day parade, which is featured in the United States film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Philadelphia hosts a smaller Steuben Parade in the Northeast section of the city. Steubenville, Ohio, has the recreated Fort Steuben, named after the Baron.
The Steuben Society was founded in 1919 as "an educational, fraternal, and patriotic organization of American citizens of German background".
A warship, a submarine, and an ocean liner (later pressed into military service) were named in von Steuben's honor. In World War I the captured German ship SS Kronprinz Wilhelm was renamed as USS Von Steuben, and in World War II there was the Dampfschiff General von Steuben, an ill-fated German luxury passenger ship which was turned into an armed transport ship during the war. During the Cold War, the U. S. Navy submarine USS Von Steuben was named for him.
Several locations in the United States are also named Steuben, most of them in his honor.
Von Steuben was one of four European military leaders who assisted the U. S. cause during the Revolution and was honored with a statue in Lafayette Square, just north of the White House, in Washington, D. C. The statue by Albert Jaegers was dedicated in 1910. A copy was dedicated in Potsdam, Germany in 1911, and destroyed during World War II. Statues of Steuben by J. Otto Schweizer can be found in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and Utica, New York; in addition to an equestrian statue by Schweizer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A bust of Steuben is in the garden of the German Embassy in Washington, D. C.
In 2007, a popular documentary DVD was released by LionHeart FilmWorks and director Kevin Hershberger titled Von Steuben's Continentals: The First American Army. The 60-minute, live-action documentary details the life, uniforms, camp life, food, weapons, equipment and drill of the Continental soldier 1775–1781, as taught and developed by Baron von Steuben.
(Excerpt from Regulations for the Order and Discipline of ...)
Quotations:
"With regard to military discipline, I may safely say that no such thing existed in the Continental Army. "
"Regardless of communication between man and man, speech is a necessary condition for the thinking of the individual in solitary seclusion. In appearance, however, language develops only socially, and man understands himself only once he has tested the intelligibility of his words by trial upon others. "
Von Steuben was most likely gay. His exits from the court of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and from Paris were under clouds of accusation of homosexual activity. Von Steuben arrived in the United States with his 17-year-old secretary, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, who is rumored to have been his lover. At Valley Forge, he began close relationships with Benjamin Walker and William North, then both military officers in their 20s, which are assumed by many to have been romantic. Because homosexuality was criminalized at the time, records of his relationships are limited to references in correspondences.
Steuben did not marry and had no children.
