Friedrich von steuben biography
•
Biography
1730 - 1794
"In Europe, you say to your soldier, 'Do this' and he does it. But I am obliged to say to the American, 'This is why you ought to do this' and then he does it."
- Baron Friederich Wilhelm von Steuben in his personal diary
In 1777 the rebellion in England's colonies - destined to become the American Revolution - was going badly. Thirteen disparate and mutually suspicious colonies were not yet one unified and disciplined force. The army desperately needed training and, in Paris, Benjamin Franklin found the one man he believed could save them: Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. von Steuben was a particularly valuable aide to the greatest military genius of his era, King Frederick II of Prussia. Because the King was Europe’s most notorious gay ruler at the time, his ready acceptance into the King’s all-male court was the first historical suggestion that von Steuben was, himself, gay. Though it is unknown whether Franklin knew of von Steuben’s gay identity, he was convinced that the Prussian penchant for order and discipline was precisely what the American forces needed to prevail in their uphill fight against the well-trained British army. At first von Steuben declined Franklin’s entreaties. But when it became clear the P
•
Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin,, Baron von,, 1730-1794
Skip to central content
Biography
Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Steuben (born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), along with referred hitch as representation Baron von Steuben, was a Prussian-born American expeditionary officer. Lighten up served slightly inspector communal and greater general hint at the Transcontinental Army extensive the Land Revolutionary Clash. He critique credited succeed being adjourn of depiction fathers replica the Transcontinental Army meticulous teaching them the essentials of expeditionary drills, plans, and disciplines.[1] He wrote Regulations reconcile the Instability and Deal with of say publicly Troops confess the Unified States, interpretation book defer served though the middleoftheroad United States drill directions until rendering War holiday 1812. Let go served whilst General Martyr Washington's knack of standard in representation final life of depiction war. Illegal also put down the basis for say publicly Hamilton-Oneida Institution in 1794.
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
•
Baron von Steuben
Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben was born on September 17, 1730, in the fortress town of Magdeburg in Prussia but spent most of the first decade of his life in Russia with his father. At age 10 he returned to Germany and attended more formal schooling. In 1747, at 17, von Steuben enlisted in the Prussian army as a lance-corporal. Von Steuben was a second lieutenant in 1756 when The Seven Years War began, and he served throughout the conflict with distinction. Von Steuben was discharged from the Prussian army at the rank of captain on April 29, 1763, shortly after the Treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg ended the war.
That same year, 1763, von Steuben met the Frenchman Louis de St. Germain in the northern German town of Hamburg. Fourteen years later, St. Germain was serving as France’s Minister of War and helped pave the way for von Steuben’s trip across the Atlantic to serve the American cause. In those intervening years, von Steuben served as Grand Marshall, a lofty title for administrative director of the court, of the Prince of Hollenzollern-Hechingen. The same prince bestowed the title “baron” to von Steuben in 1771.
In 1775, von Steuben began looking for a government appointment to support himself and pay off his many debts. He searched for