Happy Birthday Baron Von Steuben!

  As a historian, I enjoy commemorating the past. Events such as anniversaries, birthdays, dates of battles, and the like, always have grabbed my attention and have been of particular interest to me. These events give us a good excuse to bring to mind our past. I am sure if one tried hard enough, every day could be a day that has some special historical significance.

The very first commemoration one celebrates, is none other than a birthday. This month we celebrate a very important birthday of an American hero and the namesake of the City of Steubenville, Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Baron de Steuben aka Baron Von Steuben. The Baron was born September 17, 1730, in Madgeburg, Prussia, and by the age of 17, had joined the Prussian army. According to an article about Steuben on the Valley Forge National Historical Park website as part of the National Park Service, Steuben took part in the Seven Years War in Europe in 1756 and was wounded twice in battle and captured on the Russian front, but was later released. Steuben went on then to serve as an aide-de-camp of Fredrick the Great. After the end of the war in 1763, Steuben held the position of Grand-Marshall to the prince of Hollenzollern-Hechingen where he received his title of Baron.  In 1775,  Steuben was looking for work in a military capacity but was unable to find something appropriate.  It was around that time that he met with the American ambassadors to France including Ben Franklin. Steuben was told that he could not be guaranteed a position in the American Army in their struggle fighting the American Revolution as Congress was wary of giving ranks to foreign soldiers who were essentially mercenaries. Steuben had to join the American cause as a volunteer, and that’s exactly what he did arriving in America with an entourage of a few staff, including his Italian Greyhound Azor. Once here, he presented himself to congress with a letter of introduction from Ben Franklin. The Baron was ordered to meet Washington at Valley Forge, and it was here that Steuben would transform the army from a rag-tag group of men into a fighting group that could take on the might of the British Army. 

According to the article, Washington made him temporary Inspector General, and his job was to drill the soldiers uniformly, as before this time, the training was hit or miss depending on the state in which the soldier came from. The Baron did a good job in personally training the men on the field and it was this training that greatly aided them in battles to come. The custom at this period in history was not to have the officers personally train the soldiers, but Steuben broke tradition and worked right alongside his men. As a result of his great success, Steuben officially became Inspector General of the Army in May of 1778 with the rank of Major General. The following winter, the Baron traveled to Philadelphia where he wrote his important work “Regulation for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States” or “The Blue Book.” This book is still used in various capacities today to train our military personnel.

Steuben returned to fighting in 1779 and would remain in the field for the rest of the war, participating with General Nathanael Greene and commanding one of the three divisions at Yorktown, the battle that ended the Revolutionary War. After the conflict, Baron Von Steuben was compensated for his role in the revolution monetarily, but also in land grants. The fledgling country did not have the funds to pay its soldiers in money, but it could, and often did, grant land to those who had fought so hard to win American Independence. Steuben had land holdings in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia but chose to retire to the Mohawk Valley where he passed away in November of 1794.

One question I get asked a lot at Historic Fort Steuben, is if the Baron was ever at the fort, and the answer is no. The Baron of whom the Fort was named never visited. We do know that he was aware of the Fort as it was named in his honor by those who served with him in the Revolutionary War. As it was typical at the time, most commanders would name such forts after themselves, but not in the case of Historic Fort Steuben. When the city of Steubenville was laid out in 1797, Bezaleel Wells decided to name the community he was founding after the Fort. As the city grew, the early German population especially embraced this figure of local and American History and sought to memorialize him and the fort, even going so far as to attempt to rebuild the fort in the late 19^th century. With the downtown at that time a bustling place, it was impossible to make it happen then, but a century later, Historic Fort Steuben was finally rebuilt.

Baron Von Steuben was a titian of American history. He was trained by the best military minds in Europe in his time, and he brought those lessons to America to train an ill-equipped army to become one that would take on the power of the British during the American Revolution and win. His contribution to the American cause of independence is immeasurable and one that we can commemorate this year on his 295th birthday and every September 17 to come.