The Unlikely Making of an Army at Valley Forge, 1777-1778

It was the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, and General George Washington despaired that “unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place…. this army must Inevitably starve, dissolve or disperse.”

On December 19, Washington and his battle-worn, minimally trained and loosely organized army struggled into camp at Valley Forge after the British captured Philadelphia. Yet, six months later, this same army had a revived spirit, ordered ranks, and a fighting skill which would allow the soldiers to pursue the enemy and proceed with the war to secure independence. 

Steuben's Formative Experience

Friedrich von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge on February 23, 1778, in the role of Acting Inspector General. Although the Valley Forge saga had begun with hardship and sacrifice, it was to end in triumph, one in which von Steuben had a major and often overlooked role. He came to Valley Forge under the pretense that he was a nobleman, and had been a lieutenant general in the Prussian army. Neither was correct. His rank had been no higher than captain, and he had been christened Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustine Steube. His father had arbitrarily adopted the particle “von’ and Friedrich, himself, changed the spelling of Steube to Steuben, adopting the name of a Prussian family whose line of descendants had died out a century before.

Steuben held a Prussian commission from 1747 to 1763, and fought in the Seven Years War, first as an infantryman and later as a staff officer concerned with intelligence, plans and operations. 

Frederick the Great had hand-picked Steuben along with some other promising young officers and set up, in effect, his own war college. But Steuben had a serious quarrel with a young lieutenant colonel, who happened to be one of Frederick’s favorites, in 1763 and was administratively dropped from the army. He then obtained a post as Chamberlin at the court of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.  

In 1777, the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen went broke and was forced to disband his court. Subsequently Steuben tried unsuccessfully for appointment at the court of Baden and in the armies of France, Spain and possibly Britain.

A New Start in a New Land

Like many unemployed European officers, he approached Benjamin Franklin in Paris. Franklin believed that Steuben had talents which the American army needed, but told the soldier that he would have to serve as a volunteer.  

Franklin was a pragmatic man and what the army needed was a captain a lot more than it needed a general. However, Franklin feared that, as an ex-captain, Steuben would get little attention. Franklin gave Steuben a letter introducing him as “lieutenant general,” a rank that never existed in the Prussian Army. 

Steuben reported to the Continental Congress at York on February 5, 1778. He asked no rank or pay, offering to abide by the value that Congress placed on his services after he had demonstrated what he could do. The Congress members were impressed with the 47-year-old former “lieutenant general,” but Washington reserved his judgment. Steuben was sent to Valley Forge as Acting Inspector General to develop and carry out an effective training program.  

Attacking his task with Prussian thoroughness, Steuben drilled Washington’s Life Guard, an honor company, as a model for other units. Because it consisted of only 46 men, Steuben arranged for an additional 100 men to be added from other units. In training, he relied on the power of example – often taking a musket in his own hands to demonstrate the manual of arms. His explosive rage at errors, his bursts of profanity in a mixture of German, French and newly acquired English curse words delighted the troops who viewed him as a “character.” The model drill company under Steuben’s instruction progressed rapidly and was copied throughout the ranks.

Journey to Victory

At night Steuben wrote a manual, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. It was written in French which his secretary, Duponceau, translated into English. Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens of Washington’s staff put the text into American terminology.  It became the “blue book” for the entire army (and was to serve as the official US military guide until 1812).

Steuben had an adaptable mind and recognized that he couldn’t use the Prussian system on these American recruits. He developed essential drills without frills. He recognized the men would not obey blindly. He would have to explain what function the drill was to serve so that the men would follow commands with understanding. 

Perhaps most important was that Steuben created a chain of command that worked. In the Drill Manual, Steuben outlines the duties of each rank. The men of the higher rank are charged with the well-being and obedience of those in the rank beneath them.  

On May 6, 1778, on Washington’s recommendation, the Congress appointed Steuben to inspector general with the rank of major general. Later he was given a field command as a division commander in Virginia, and participated in the siege of Yorktown (1781) where the British met their final defeat.

Steuben never returned to Europe. After the war, he was granted a sum of money and land in New Jersey and New York.  Ultimately, von Steuben was voted a lifetime pension of $2,500 a year on which he lived until his death on November 28, 1794, near Remsen, New York.

Excerpted from a feature article by Ruth Seegrist Detweiler in the magazine Pennsylvania VOL. 4, NO. 4, pp 26-33