Colin Ross, "Unser Amerika", Chapter 23

 23.

General von Steuben

joins the American Army

The highway leading from Philadelphia to Valley Forge is like any other in America: paved, smooth, straight, with many signs on either side. These signs are characteristic of American roads. They are advertising hotels or even shaving soap and shoe polish. Often they recommend the nearest towns to visit or settle in. Often they are also historical references to the Independence War or the Civil War, or they are virtually school blackboards with science or language lessons. After all, people in the United States are extremely religious about education. In any case, there are so many signs along the way that you don't even look at them anymore, let alone read them.

But the sign that now appeared in front of me I did read, yes, I even stopped to take a closer look at it. It said "King of Prussia" in large letters, and underneath that the next town was named after the great Prussian king Frederick II.

The name of the little town, "King of Prussia," in Pennsylvania, keeps alive the memory of the first relationship between the German Empire and the United States. There was, after all, unfortunately not a German "Reich" at that time, but a "Roman arm," as the Capuchin priest says in his camp sermon. Worse still, there was a "German dishonor" brought upon the German people by the ignominious little courts of princes with their mistress economy, their tyranny, their human trafficking. The only ray of hope was the figure of the great king. How far his fame shone, nothing proves better than that a forest village in distant America named itself after him. It was through Frederick the Great that the first bond was forged between the leading German state and the young republic struggling for independence. He was the first to recognize Independence and sent Washington a rapier as a token of his admiration.

But the American army received a second, more valuable gift - albeit indirectly - from Frederick II: General von Steuben, who turned the militia and irregulars into an army that was modern in the sense of the time. So great was the fame of the Frederician art of war throughout the world at that time after the Seven Years' War that the French Minister of War, Count St-Germain, knew of no one better to organize the American Revolutionary Army than a general who had emerged from the Frederician school. France was then on the verge of concluding the alliance with the United States, so it had every interest in raising the discipline as well as the clout of its militia. The French military recognized better than the American politicians that the backwoodsmen and the farm snipers were unbeatable in their wilderness, but that it was now important to defeat the English in open field battles as well. After the Americans had rejected the feelers of peace that Great Britain had extended after Burgoyne's surrender, and after danger threatened the entire British Empire as a result of France's interference, the English had risen to new efforts to force down the rebellious colonies. From the seacoast and from the large cities, however, the British regiments could not be driven out with the tactics of bush warfare, which knew only how to fight tree-to-tree, not with troops that to a considerable extent lacked any firm order.

Count von St-Germain was a great admirer of Frederician strategy and Prussian discipline. He had met Baron Steuben in Denmark and believed he had found the right man in him. He invited him to Paris and brought him together with Benjamin Franklin, the American negotiator at the French court.

Steuben was no longer a young man at this time. He had never been an adventurer. He was about to lose his position and reputation in Europe. When Franklin, while showing great interest in the services of the Prussian general, declared that he had no authority to make a firm contract with him, and when Steuben heard of the many adventurers who were overrunning Congress as well as the commander-in-chief with requests for employment in the American army, his initial enthusiasm cooled, and he left Paris again to return to Germany. The Minister of War, however, sent urgent letters after him. A stronger effect on Steuben was that he felt a deep interest in the cause of American freedom. He had the desire to serve it, whether it meant advantage or disadvantage to himself. So he turned back and embarked for America on the French ship Le Flammand at his own risk and expense.

The Prussian officer did not want to impose himself, and he especially did not want to hurt the feelings of his American comrades. There had already been enough disgruntlement by the fact that foreigners who had joined the American army had been put before and preferred to native officers who had already distinguished themselves in the field. Thus, he did not impose any conditions. In a letter to Washington, he declared that he would gladly renounce the rank and position he held in Europe and would be satisfied with any post the American commander in chief would direct him to hold.

Washington, however, would not let Steuben surpass him in magnanimity. Besides, he knew exactly what he had in the Prussian general. His army was in the worst possible condition at the moment and needed nothing more urgently than discipline and reorganization. So he received Steuben like a prince. Baron Steuben wrote of his reception in camp that he received more honors than he was entitled to. Washington traveled several miles to meet him. An honor guard of one officer and twenty-five men was posted outside his quarters. His name had been issued as a slogan for the army on the day of his arrival. When the Prussian officer modestly declined, stating that he had come merely as a volunteer, Washington replied that the whole army would count it an honor to go on guard for such a volunteer.

Washington never came to regret the trust he placed in Steuben from the beginning. With him a new spirit moved into the American Army, and between the two men developed a similar close working relationship as that between Hindenburg and Ludendorff during the World War.