conceived, with the most significant evidence of the revolution took place and where the most important and visionary leaders lived and worked. these sites contain magnificent landscapes, historic buildings and on checks and documents that bring the experience of history alive for our visitors. the american revolution is of fundamental story of our shared history, it is an immense story and is told throughout the nation. at all the authentic places where history happen. from the old north bridge to north -- yorktown. i believe that one of the most import authentic places is right here at valley forge were thousands of individual soldiers perseverant for a difficult time and were is struggling army was transformed. a key leader in the transformation was baron de steuben, a man we are here tonight to learn more about.

author paul lockhart holds a bachelor's -- a bachelor's degree from the state university of new york. and a master's and doctorate degree in european and military history from perdue. at perdue he studied under the laid down their e rothenberg and internationally acclaimed napoleonic scholar and expert in european military history. for the past 19 years paul lockhart has been teaching european in military history at wright state university in dayton, ohio and is drawn to the relationship between the european and american ways of war. this relationship really began at valley forge. in the drillmaster -- in and "the drillmaster of valley forge" paul lockhart tells how his experience in the prussian army helped him shape the u.s. armed forces. he was instrumental in creating west point and wrote the first official regulations of the american army. he shares some little known

facts and the personal side of this iconic figure. so please join me in giving a big valley forge welcome to paul lockhart. [applause] >> my original intention tonight was to say something to the venue in to talk specifically about steuben and valley forge and i thought better of it actually after a little while largely because it's the one context in which everybody knows anything about steuben knows about steuben and he was at valley forge and i think it away he was such an integral part of the legend that has come out of valley forge that actually does his character a disservice to come out to a certain extent as a platitude it to dimensional

character or a caricature of himself. before i go on with that i want to address early on the especially from speaking to people today that became obvious about the proper pronunciation of his name. and american historians tend to refer to him as baron de steuben which is the correct german pronunciation but that is incorrect in the first sense that derrin is not a german title, rather when steuben was in germany after 1768 he had the honor title which translates roughly as barren. but one going to france in 1777 and then later that same year going to the u.s. the galvanized his name which is common among the russian gentleman, it was the preferred language of the prussian court and he referred to himself correctly in the french fashion as the baron de steuben changing both the title

and the pronunciation of his name to the french form. so the reason i could bring that up among other things is when i did an article on steuben for u.s. news and world report back in july there were a couple of incensed readers in the task by e-mail for daring to refer to him as the baron de steuben and yet that is the way he referred to himself and all of his correspondence. i have yet to find a single document from the time in which is called baron de steuben, even at the charles wilson peale portrait of steuben which is usually titled and his own catalog was called the baron de steuben. so a trivial point perhaps, but just so i don't have a people fuming at me afterwards i thought it would be important to address. but also i think it brings up a point about the barron's identity in this character which i would really like to address, about him as a person he is

something of a mystery and he shouldn't be actually because although there are some parts of his past that he essentially cafta markey, really the barons background is fairly easily document but just hasn't been much since his last biography in 1937. because it largely his role as before he is generally thought of it as this farrell tested the prussian who shows up almost miraculously and february 1778 and teaches the troupe to stop to this note and swearing at the awkward neophyte soldiers in a mixture of french and german and english courses punctuated by the occasional goddamn and having his aides translate curses when he ran out of them. as a result i think to a certain extent he appears almost clownish, almost a caricature of

himself and he is often described and this is commonplace and for literature on the revolution as a fraud. the he has forgiven and that sinn of self-promotion because he genuinely had talent. in the whole reason for being a fraud was simply the fact that he did not have the credentials that measured up to his talent. but because he had genuine utility that is seen who really more than anything else someone who is endearingly human, but this characterization like most caricatures i think doesn't do the man justice and really if we look at steuben's character that he was guilty of it shameless self-promotion and a lot of that actually came from others, his allies rather than from hamid. he was a man of little or no formal education and yet one of

the most literate or literary figures of the continental high commander in the revolution in some ways was more parallel to like thomas jefferson who was a town of the enlightenment and not the kind of have a depression martin and that one would expect him to be. he was gregarious, they constantly talk about how social he was and he loved parties and was an elegant dancer and seem to make friends with everybody in and at the same time he seems to be incapable of forming intimate on with anyone. in fact, i would say no one even close to his age really knew him very well. he did not open up to anybody. he had a ferocious temper. he found that tempers inflamed year the meant to him that he had a ferocious temper and very

often over small things. he is a difficult man to get along with. of course, he is known as a gifted organizer and yet he contested the things. he is known for the contribution to the army and in terms of organizing, something he never wanted to do. it was not what he saw as his mission in life which is something we will get back to. he is very modest about his contributions and towns and really believed especially after valley forge that he had not accomplished all laugh much. he saw his career as one of failure but, on the other hand, when those things he did accomplish or not properly and knowledge by his standards whether with money or praise he would become extremely sensitive to such things and sometimes childish. i know i sound like i am painting him as being a pleasant

person, but i think it is easy to identify also with some attributes of his character. he was inquisitive and the sense that he always seemed to want money and, of course, some people that may know he was horribly incompetent in managing his own money and one of his aides put it after the war he would be for every in the calf in the cow's bellied. on the other hand, although he was inquisitive he was extraordinarily generous with his friends and probably spend more money on helping out friends and the ashes spent on himself. but he did spend on himself generally was on clothing of. he had a bad habit of getting close and far beyond his means and that matter talking about money is characterized as a mercenary in somebody who came to the united states purely as a job opportunity and he did.

he came to the u.s. because he was desperate to basically reinvigorate a stalled career that actually ended 14 years before he came to the u.s. and russia. but he still did have enlisted dedication in principle to the ideas of the american revolution before he was familiar with the specifics of the american revolution and partially because he is a very well steeped in some of the writings of the enlightenment. in terms of the history in the framing of the declaration in our constitution was one of his favorite works any had a strong dedication of representative government even if he was not familiar with the particulars of the american cause until he was safely on american shores. well, steuben's european routes are sometimes described as being markey and there's really not too much mystery, in fact, his

upbringing was summoned typical of his class. he was born with one we refer to as the lower nobility and some time there is some misunderstanding about that and more than one author said steuben was not noble but hundley born. who humbly born in mean something different in 18th-century german context than an american context. yes, he was poor but his family wasn't nobility. there were notoriously poor, and many members were virtually than this but not entirely and so his family did not have a much land in the states and yet they had no blood. recent genealogical work was largely clearing that up and found that his plug line was. mobil and the paternal side was highly aristocratic. the identity did not come from

wealth and possession of the states, it came from service to the king of prussia criticism made them important. these of the people who made up the officer class of the army, it was expected when they would serve the capacity either in the civil administration or as an officer in the war and this was a tradition in an steuben's family. his father -- to and we can use the german pronunciation -- he was not a wealthy man and all. he was a mere captain and an engineer of the prussian army but because of the engineering was small actually he was a fairly high rank and made the rank of major ultimately. the king of prussia himself the father of frederick the great was listed as a godfather in a sponsor and a young fredrics back to some so this was no

insignificant portion family. yet although his origins or in some ways a typical in most other ways typical, being a military man who meant that young steuben would not have a life of ease in had a difficult life as his father and family were buffeted about by the demands of the service from coast to coast, garrison to garrison, a siege to see it in even a prolonged stay in russia when prussian officers went there to help train the czarina's troops there, in fact, in russia and steuben lost five of his siblings and paris from disease. it's an uncomfortable existence, it was on stable, it was an insistence that often cannot have opportunities for structure and an education and he admitted he had the education and a young boy did the only formal education he received was at the hands of jesuits priests when

his father was stationed in breslau and prussian and then only instructed largely in line and mathematics, not much more than that. so really steuben would have to be self educated if he were two go anywhere but he was an ambitious young man and so that was accomplished. he did not allow him to be constrained by his circumstances and at 16 a fairly typical for aim boy he joined the prussian army, already accompanied his father on campaign and 16 and for six years was a nebulous gray area between being an enlisted man and a commissioned officer before he was finally made the tenant at the age of 22. that in itself is fairly typical of what he did in his off hours was not. while most of his fellow junior officers spend their off hours gambling and drinking, frequenting brothels, steuben of

like to hear their stories and talk about them a great deal but he spent most of his off-duty hours reading, teaching himself french, reading greek and roman history, reading contemporary literature, reading military theory. ..

do him a very difficult for for pressure and one that i think proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the efficacy of the prussian system at the power and strength of the prussian army. but steuben managed to be in half a dozen of the bloodiest battles the prussian armies fought in in the thick of the prague, for example the battle to prague in 57 he led the infantry company against the alliance and was himself wounded. after that though, he managed to attain posts that were a bit more distinguished throughout the rest of the war. he served largely as a staff at the brigade level and level of the army and he had attracted the attention -- because of his obvious talent and obvious knowledge and also because he

was very affable person. he attracted the attention of the persian high command including the king's young girl brother, king henry of prussia and one of the best generals in a matter of three and a half years he compiled a service record in 1757 and 1760, service record that few, if any of his contemporaries in the future continental army could match. in fact, they would say probably none of them could in terms of the amount of battle experience he had. but at the extent of the service record was not the thing that most distinguished and i think. it was a variety of posts which he held. he had, again, as a young company commander learned to train and natural troops, individually and small units. serving as a staff officer of one capacity or another, he learned the mechanics of

planning campaigns and marches of encampments of virtually all the physical operations of an army. and because of his talent at the staff level, he acquired a few honors that few people of his age would have been able to. he was in fact for a brief while appointed to the so-called royal suite, the personal headquarters of king frederick the great himself and at the very end of the war was one of the small handful of young officers who were selected to purchase the so-called [inaudible] -- special class on the art of war, which was an informal school for generalship that was run by the king of prussia himself, so in other words he was being groomed for the generalship while he was yet in his early 30's. this is a mark of obviously very talented officer. he knew the prussian system inside and out. he was familiar with the regulations. he was familiar with the

tactics. he believed the prussian army like most was the best fighting force in europe, but on the other hand he was also extra merkley open-minded and did a lot of reading and military theory on the side and was particularly interested in the debates going on at that moment about tactics within the french army. but on the other hand, the courier in the prussian army crushed his spirit because somehow in 1763 he ran afoul of a -- someone who didn't like him very much. he was never clear about this in the later writings, who specifically he could blame for this. something that obviously wounded him very deeply. most likely the entity of frederick's camp, rather unpleasant gentleman who ruined the careers of several officers he found to be threatening. either way, abruptly steuben was relegated to a company command mediocre regiment and remote

post and ultimately by the summer of 63 after the war had been over he was dismissed from the surface, and this is a terrible ending for him. this is the career he prepared for all his life, the one his father had done as well and at age 33 he's a retired infantry captain on half living in a europe that is tightly in peace and doesn't need an infantry camp living on half pay. his career as his life was basically over. it was horrible in economic terms that steuben had. he had no other income. his family was not wealthy. it was even and harder blow to his pride that he had given his all to the surface of this king and this is how he had been rewarded. he never lost his admiration for the prussian army or the reference for old frederick the great. he was very proud to have served in the prussian army. but on the other hand, this was one of those things that made him i think in later life so

sensitive to mosul much the criticism but sensitive to his contributions not being properly acknowledged. but he did manage to find gainful the employment before too long and that in itself also an important influence on him. he was unable to find military employment after the end of the seven years though he tried. again, europe was in peace and there wasn't much need for officers but he did find, thanks to the influence on them wide network of friends he had begun to assemble in 1763 as a form generic to the minor german court and from 1764 until 1765, he served as the post, basically the court chamberlain to a minor german court, minor german prince and wholley empire. the principality, a significant territory. one of the hundreds of significant territories that made up the holy roman empire.

and the least was a job and was an honorable job. it didn't pay extraordinarily well and it did have its benefits. steuben being a social man and there are plenty of parties and dances and banquets and he could -- he could flirt with mobile women and he enjoyed himself thoroughly in this regard, and he was able to professional network. when the prince -- he served as the court chamberlain and basically was in charge of running the princely household and supervising the accounts for the prince. when his prince went on a more or less a voluntary fiscal exile and dissolved his court and moved to southern france for a couple of years, steuben accompanied him and learned to ingratiate himself with senior french officers that he passed by. so in this -- in this ability to build up networks of people was something that put him in good stead.

she also received a social distinction that i think ordinarily wouldn't mention, but it's so often addressed in biographies of steuben i think it's important. he received the title of greider, the title that would be translated as baron. it was often said in some of the literature of the revolutionary war that steuben wasn't even a real baron, which is patently untrue. he was in 1768 in fact inducted into the so-called order of fidelity by another german prince. the margrave, and with that went the distinction of being a bear in. it was a title that didn't mean very much. it was purely honorific. nobody went along with it but it is something he were probably the rest of his life and something very much part of his identity. he's wearing the insignia of the

order in one fashion or another it's curious that comes out of his life as a court here and that is again a thing that might be kind of surprising that he despised administrative work. he hated supervising the household accounts almost as much as he hated supervising the education of the prince's daughter, both tasks although they were honorable bonds, he found both dole and not terribly rewarding as he remarked to it and later on on the good soldier and miserable lawyer. he still craved the life of the soldier but to him the life of a soldier meant leading troops in battle, administrative tasks were not pleasant ones as far as he was concerned and he hated that life so much although he had a secure position in 1875, not quite 45-years-old he simply quit and went looking for military employment again. he was better connected than he was before in 1763. but at this point, he's a

45-year-old retired infantry captain who hasn't been in an army in 12 years. so it was not -- was not an easy and plymouth search. he cast his net wide. he was turned down by a very to the coverage we every army and continent although he did get certain nibbles from the french army and austrian army three he came within a hairsbreadth of getting a lieutenant colonel and his own regiment to come in. but all these things fall through so by 1777, when he runs into peter burnett, an englishman in the pay of benjamin franklin, american commissioner in paris, and hears about the revolution and hears about the americans need for trained leaders he is all ears. by this point, steuben was a desperate man. needing some kind of -- some kind of employment at all, but certainly military employment, hence his trip to paris in the summer of 1777 to meet with benjamin franklin.

i don't want to go into that story right now because that in itself is worthy of a long talk on the way by which he came to america, the expectations he had american service and how these were dashed by ben franklin who couldn't promise much of anything initially, not even free passage to america that alone rank in the continent are me to steuben. but suffice it to say at this point steuben was not a fraud although he has been again called that a real often. he was confident in his abilities. he had a wide range of military experience. he had great connections, he had affidavits from close friends including the french minister of the war who he met back in 1763. and number of french officers knew him personally. he knew that he had something to offer. the whole problem was of course on paper he was a mere captain and after so many high-ranking

european officers had already made their way to america and since the continental army and congress both were not eager to take on any more foreigners by the end of 1777 this meant that it was unlikely that he would catch the attention of congress, hence the fraud largely perpetrated by the silas deane and ben franklin of making steuben more than what he appeared to be a turning this retired captain in to a lieutenant general, of turning this man who served for a while of frederick the great's staff and frederick the great's camp turning him into the quartermaster general of the entire prussian army, and defending the -- explaining the lack of written credentials to explain this rank by simply saying that steuben forgot them and did not -- and they would eventually soon follow, which of course they did not. so, hence steuben, or rather mer the baron de steuben as he was calling himself, sociable,

confident in his abilities did exactly not know the particulars of the american cause but sympathized in principle because of his fondness for the representative government in principle, barely speaking more than a few words of english upon his arrival in his young friend secretary, pierre [speaking in native in tongue] who at least spoke passable english. and it is that point when he first set foot in the united states beginning to get to know steuben's personality better marshall because of documentary records and is much richer for that. from the moment he set foot on american soil in portsmouth hampshire in december, 1777,, he showed -- showed quite well this talent he had for making friends, and he did it in a very politically astute way. whether or not he was coached by been franklin, the silence dean, is difficult to say but he went out of his way to make friends with people of all political inclinations, to make friends

with those who were -- those who were very fond of george washington and made friends with those who were not. he went out as we for example to make friends with sam adams, who certainly wasn't a big proponent of the standing army alone foreign officers, and with horatio gates, who by this point was in many ways washington's rival for commanding of the army. he went out of his way to flatter gates in particular to send him letters congratulate him as the legendary victor of saratoga and invariably steuben didn't have a problem in that regard. and he made a big splash when he -- when he came to the united states especially when you moved from portsmouth to boston waiting to be summoned to the contras, which was then new york not philadelphia, which was held by the british up time. he had been partly because it was a novelty of his appearance. hear, a very almost stuffy

looking swaggering prussian officer with his gigantic medallion on his chest accompanied by a staff of young french officers and fact as he put it only fancy to yourself an old bear in with a large bottle and store on his breast, three to the capitol, largest oil battalion called on a fall that company could speak a word of english. he was being modest, he could in fact speaking gush and bragged about the fact he could successfully for what boston girls where his up companions could only point and grunt. [laughter] and steuben -- also it helped he was novel in a different way. unlike the vast majority of the foreign officers who passed through bonded or came to american shores in general he was and french and catholic. he was german and protestant calvinist, which of course went over very well in somewhat still boston. boston already shows something about steuben's personality.

he loved the attention. even acted as if he were bewildered by this as he wrote to a friend after he came to portsmouth, all of the inhabitants of the place crowded together as if to look at a rhinoceros. he loved the way that people just seemed to gather around him and want to get to know him. but on the other hand, jan hancock even sought him out to meet him personally, all the other hand he felt from the very beginning when he hadn't even done anything yet for the american cause as if he were under appreciated. he believed congress by now should have known of his arrival and an arrangement should have been made to receive him as a distinguished guest, after all he got the impression he was a distinguished guest. there was no house for him, he had to pay his own mind, he had to pay for his own meals. no one even helped him find a place to live. and inevitably, he mentioned that he couldn't understand how

boston politicians have gotten as far as they had because they were more lackadaisical the most of the court years at their side and that, excuse me, and that he felt that the people of boston as a whole were mean-spirited and tight-fisted and after a while he was sick of the place. he hadn't done anything for the american cause yet he felt he wasn't being acknowledged enough which is something we see throughout steuben's life and is one of those things that makes him he kind of a difficult personality. the reception by congress when he finally made it to york in january of 1778, he quieted a lot of those doubts because congress gave him a wonderful reception. horatio gates offered the use of his house and he was constantly being donner and and fed by richard peterson would eventually become a member of the board and one of steuben's best friends. he noted he had never seen a foreign person treated as such a

distinguished man as steuben was when he was at york. and from york where congress accepted the services and of course steuben said all the right things. he didn't come to serve for pay, he came to serve only the american cause which he believed in and george washington revered and wouldn't be paid, would not allow himself to be paid except to expenses until such a time he proved his worth and in congress should pay him retroactively to the deed he left france. [laughter] it was kind of the congress of course was happy to take him up because it didn't involve owsley and any cash at the moment, but only kind of vaguely held to the guarantee that true accountability if they believed steuben had accomplished anything that eventually they would pay him. but from congress to valley

forge where of course he meets washington and strikes up early on it's not a friendship with washington, a very close respectful partnership, and of course it is at valley forge we have the familiar picture of the baron, initially in pressing washington with his almost scathing reviews of the condition of the troops, the sanitary conditions in the camp, the arrangements of the fortifications, enough so that washington was happy to turn over to him the training of the troops and of course that's where baron enters into the revolutionary legend as the man who trained the troops, the man who initially drove the company and then passed the members of the model company on to train the rest of the army. but valley forge also i think

reveals some attributes to the personality that oftentimes are overlooked. again, keeping in mind that this was not something that he wanted. he didn't want to train troops and he explained this later on. something was put in his lap that he did because nobody else was doing it and certainly he knew a very well but this wasn't what he intended on doing with his military career in the united states. one thing that is clear considering the accolades that has been heaped upon him for what he accomplished at valley forge and was justifiably a miracle that the vast transformation he had worked in the american army at least specifically in the infantry in a matter of three months the difference was like night and day between february and may of 1778. he did not think he had accomplished much and he said this much throughout the rest of his career. yes, i taught them some basics. i taught them how to march. i taught them how to change face

and how to wheel but anybody could have done that. he pointed this out frequently that any army officer with a smattering of professional military education could have done exactly the same thing. i think he was doing himself a bit of a disservice because i think his approach was as important as what he actually talked troops. but for the remainder of the war whenever the tactical proficiency of the continental army was pleased, he would continue to point out that well, they still had a long ways to go and that in general discipline had not been part of the army. maybe in tactics, maybe antril, but not the other ways the army still hadn't properly learned how to conduct guard duty or how to establish standard operating procedures for all of the administrative tasks that would go along with military life. but he did feel that he had earned something in doing what he had done at valley forge because he did work very hard in

the hours of the morning virtually every night creating a tactical systems and manual basically on the fly. he believed that he had earned his stripes and that he had proven himself to washington and had been given a herculean task and performed quite well. and the reason that is of significance is because from steuben's point of view, he had proven his worth, he had proven his ability so he was one step closer to getting what he believed he deserved which was a field command. and this is what steuben salles as his mission. this was what steuben saw as his just deserts. and by doing what he did at valley forge he believed he had shown he was worthy of this. another thing that his experience at valley forge shows is his attitude towards military authority. which was one that really didn't go over well with either washington or with the rest

continental officer. washington gave steuben come stila get a volunteer aide, he wasn't made a major general until the day of the grant review on may 6, 1778. he gave a great deal of authority, a lot of steuben had taken control of the army to inform the regimental colonel is that they couldn't natural the troops on less steuben or a member of the staff were present. they couldn't control them in the ways they did before, that they would have to follow the instructions of steuben precisely and steuben demanded ready access to return. the basics of information to the individual regimens. powers that up until this point only washington himself exercised and it did cause a great deal of consternation among officers who saw this as a parvenu who wasn't even a silly trustworthy and hadn't proven himself to be a patriot or

somebody worthy of that kind of trust. so there was resentment and steuben's response to that was unusual but i think it has a lot to do with his profession of bringing -- oppression upbringing. if officers didn't like his authority and objected, the only option allows for washington to get to give more authority. so that he could silence these officers and get them to comply with the needs of the surface, not an attitude that would go over very well in the continental army where even the officer corps was fairly egalitarian. both of these believe he was both a debate could it wrong. and fuel command steuben believe after participation at the battle of mark leff, where the value of his reforms were made manifest and where he actually led troops in the field he firmly believed that this showed beyond a shadow of a doubt what he had done at valley forge was one of the things he could

accomplish. he had shown he could command troops in the field and of course shortly after monmouth he was given a very temporary field command to take temporary control of the decision and marched them from new jersey to the hudson, new york state while most of the other high ranking generals and the army were at that point involved in the court-martial of general charles lee. even though this was pretty insignificant command but raised a lot of hackles among lesser generals, brigadier general some particular than a foreigner who had only been in the country less than a year should be given such a distinguished come and command washington largely to keep peace within the corps had to -- had to back off and had to deny steuben his demand for a permanent field command. it was something that -- something balad trinkle steuben a great deal especially the

months immediately in seven. on the issue of authority, a product of steuben's prussian upbringing, although he sympathized with representative government and although he initially at least had a very high regard for congress, a re that would steadily deteriorated as the war went on and down to virtually nothing by the time that the war was over, he didn't see how democracy fit into army command. that in times of national emergency like war, officers simply had to put aside their ego for the good of the service. in the army there were no such thing as injured egos were bruised pride and officers who didn't like the fact that perhaps they had been temporarily shunted aside for the good of the service, they would have to put up with it. and it was this attitude that

shows that steuben had unrealistic expectations and his expectations were continually being dashed. and it was those disappointments that brought out the worst of his personality. look at steuben's actions after valley forge. he does appear to be -- well, i say on attractive because i think it is easy to understand his feelings in this regard but his over sensitivity, tendency to exaggerate self sacrifice. he had and sacrificed a lot in coming to america. and of course the argument had been made by him by silenced been benjamin franklin that steuben sacrificed all sorts of estates and incomes by coming to america. it's when he felt he was being on appreciated that steuben was pointing out the sly and would say i have given up a great deal of land and income in europe and if i can't be given a field commander i'm just going to have

to go home he would leave these childish empty threats which initially had affect but as time went on washington and congress both began to realize they were empty and there was nothing for steuben to go home to and in some ways steuben didn't even have a home in europe. that easily offended sense of pride was also what tended to pique his ferocious belts of anchor, his ferocious fits of anger. when dealing with congress and dealing with other continental officers it was very real and one of the most self-destructive aspect of steuben's personality was he tended to take out his anger on his closest friends, to vent on his closest friends and sometimes it hurt him and his efforts and sometimes cost him friendships. in the spring of 1779 for example after he finished

composing the first official regulations of the u.s. army, the so-called blue book, which went into production and was finished in spring of 1779 and was printed that summer he was a bit bothered congress wasn't being as generous also much to him but his assistant rewarding them with extra cash for the work they performed in philadelphia over the winter and spring. and he took his frustration to his good friend, henry warren of south carolina, the former president of congress who had been with steuben's most loyal backers since he arrived in this country. and he over dinner with a few friends well, he expressed his temper in rather on certain terms, threatened to go back to europe, spoke about congress and rubber on salting terms and this confrontation cost him his friendship with warrants.

in fact after that evening he and lawrence never exchanged a word again. well once after the war on pay and that was very perfunctory. so that same season the spring of 1779 when the blue book was experiencing production problems due to the shortage of qualified printers and engravers in washington and bookbinder's made it difficult to get the copies of the regulation printed and distributed to the troops in new jersey. he lost his temper over the fact it wasn't being done quickly enough and he went over the head of the board of the war which was responsible for the production of the book even though to members of the board were amongst his best friends, richard peters and richard pickering. he went to congress to complain about the board's slackness in producing the regulations and the congress censored or another

school did the board for being so slow. it almost cost his friendship with richard peters and timothy pickering and steuben had known he had made a great mistake as soon as he complained he wrote to peters and pickering and asked them to make a distinction between the baron as inspector general and the baron as their friend and fortunately both were forgiving but he came close to costing him those friendships. he doesn't seem to curve his temper at the wrong times and oftentimes his temper was misdirected. but still he did indeed have many friends. steuben had a rather wide group of friends amongst the continental generals, henry knox for example was close with him, anthony wayne as well, with washington he had a good working relationship but they became more cordial overtime as steuben stopped complaining about his

lack of pay and lack of appreciation and began to serve washington as a liaison with congress after 1879 that he and washington would -- became quite intimate in some ways and washington in fact put up with steuben's explosions of temper realizing they were not directed at him it was just steuben them to about congress and he would have very close relations with the members of his staff, billy north and bin walker and had been adopted by richard peters and his family in philadelphia where he spent a great deal of time when he was in town which was often but alpheus despite all these close friends and the fact he had close friends from the persian service with which he corresponded none of them ever could be said to be truly intimate friends. his friends in europe never knew exactly what he had done in the united states. he was so insecure about what he

had accomplished and so convinced his career in the united states was insignificant that he made up, well he made up fib is when and telling his friends in europe about what had been accomplished, that he was a member of the board of the war and congress had given him so many fine horses that when he met washington outside of valley forge washington tantamount with the honor guard of calvary and in general he was being treated as a hero and in fact he said he commanded the entire left wing of the army at the battle of monmouth, things that were false and to his friends in the united states he never revealed the truth about his past in europe. ben walker and billy northwood convinced to the end of their days that steuben had been lieutenant-general in the prussian army and personal friend of the king himself.

he seemed to have been so insecure in many ways he simply wouldn't let down his guard emotionally even to those closest to him that liked or left him in conditionally. i did the last thing i would like to address as the most perplexing and the thing about his personality about his character was his attitude towards american government and he made a distinction between the two. he generally liked americans and expressed this frequently. he like to the american common soldiers that he dealt with at valley forge and throughout the war although he always kept a professional distance from them he enjoyed chatting with them during inspections. he clearly liked america for other reasons as well. he frequently expound upon what he saw as the virtue of the revolution. he felt there was great at least formally there was no -- this was a classless society he pointed out to a friend proudly that somebody like henry box, a

mere book seller could rise up to be a major general in the qualified our tourist. at the same time, he was convinced that congress was, that american governance was not reflective of the ideals of the revolution, that there was no discipline in the united states as a nation that the states were free to do with a wanted to do that the american people often simply didn't pull together the way they needed to to affect a victory over great britain and as after the war as he remained in public life in formerly his attitude towards american governments became even darker. he became convinced the american republic was bound to fail and congress was dominated by merchants and lawyers and had no regard for the common man in which rebellion broke out in

massachusetts in 1787 and in fact, he cited openly with the rebels because they were the ones as far as he was concerned who had been mistreated by the government and therefore it was only fitting they should rise in rebellion against it. at one point and that he suggested the creation of an american markey and contacted prince henry of prussia to see if he might accept the crown of a united states markey but he dropped the project as soon as the constitution was ratified and washington was elected president. so, he seems to have been a man who might not have much regard for american governance but to the end of his days he continued to make proposals about the organization of the army and first curriculum for the first military academy at west point and perhaps most importantly although he had hoped throughout

the war to return to europe to perhaps find a commission and the french army to use his service in the united states a steppingstone to a better career in europe he did gradually give that up not just resigned himself to leave the united states openly embraced it. he was proud to have been made a citizen in the late 80's both in pennsylvania and new york and despite his carping against the congress and american governments he really believed himself to be american and in this regard he stands out amongst the other for an officer's who served in the united states army, the continental army during the war. not only he stayed behind but he openly embraced citizenship and regardless of his complaints about american government truly considered himself to be an american citizen. he becomes not only the man in many ways he kind of pretended

to be when he came to the united states, he does in fact become an american. thank you. [applause] i should take some questions, shouldn't i? [laughter] >> you didn't say anything about his social life. did he marry? >> i did want to get to it, one of those things on restrains of time, he never did merry and he spent his own sexually there had been a matter of question that he was homosexual. there is little -- unfortunately there is little evidence to suggest one thing or the other. true, he did attract the

attention of prince henry of pressure on known for favoring young handsome officers especially if they were talented but more that they be young and handsome and how will sexually wasn't uncommon or bisexuality in the court. one of the reasons he fled so precipitously in 77 he decided to take up the rather skimpy offer given by silence dena and benjamin franklin was he had been accused of molesting young boy by all at the court. there is no reference to this besides a letter written to his former employer by a friend of his and sometimes his relationship with billy north and then back walker is put forth an ounce possibly being homosexual. however again keep in mind the 18th century is a different time. then wrote to each other and spoke to each other in a different way than today. there appears to be little

evidence of that. in fact one piece of evidence to the contrary to what his personal assistance after the war while in new york state he dropped a locket that contained a portrait the woman who managed to get his appointment who was the niece of frederick the great and showed a great deal and when he picked up the locket his assistant asked who it was and according to this assistant steuben choked up and said she was a nationalist woman but he was known to be a big flirt but it's difficult to say but now he didn't marry or have children. >> [inaudible] >> yes, that's one of the things that india him to the german officers was making merry of their valley forge and having parties for junior officers to which no one would be admitted unless they had no breaches or heavily freed preaches and he

was a diplomat valley forge something he did through his career to put out a good spread for his guests simply by pooling resources with his staff and using the extra rations here and because of his rank to put together a relatively impressive table relatively by valley forge standards. but this is one of those things that earned him the affection of younger officers who generally tended to be drawn to him not because his affability but also with a certain extent he represented old europe. sophisticated and well read and had been the army of the great and fought in battles that were by now legend, but yes, the parties were certainly a big part of his personal appeal. >> where was his house located? where he put on these parties? >> somebody else can probably address the better than i can because i don't know valley forge all that well.

>> if you could wait for the microphone to come before you ask the question that way everyone can hear thank you. >> there is evidence that steuben was in a cabin, and a hut in number of general officers. it wasn't uncommon. like we know a many of them would pay rent to homes but that steuben was in a cabin and proud of that. where that would have occurred where he was holding some of these parties we don't know for certain. >> that's the impression i had gotten from the literature. >> i just want to say is and there may be the superintendents' could in light of us, isn't there a baron de

steuben house in the village of valley forge up route 23? i've seen it for years. it says it's the baron de steuben house. >> that is a memorial house. he didn't reside there. i don't know if that is in lightning but he didn't reside there. [laughter] >> where was he buried? >> outside of a village of new york. adis not too far from the city of rome. there's a new york state historical site >> when did he die? >> 1974. she survived the revolution body 11 years. he tried to get by on what was supposed to have gotten from congress but he did not and we mentioned he was poor with his own money. in terms of managing it. he ended up trying to get

involved in one get rich quick scheme most involved in land speculation but ultimately he tried to make a go of a by exploring a rank given by new york, 16,000 acres near the mohawk river. it turned into a kind of feudal estate where he would have -- he would have a manor house and itinerant farmers to come to be his peasants and it didn't work very well. he -- he was barely able to make ends meet. spending his winters in manhattan he was very part a -- much a part of the life. spending his spring and summer in the estate he called steuben. in fact it is a town nearby called steuben today. and it was there in the fall of 79 before to november 74 alone except for his personal

assistant at the time and was initially buried right outside his house, but when that -- he insisted on a grave, he wanted to be on marked. the following year local authorities started building a road over but was unfortunately benjamin walker happened to be present and objective as a sacrilege in and had steuben's body exhumed and reburied and marked and the state of new york but a monument over the tomb. >> de steuben seemed to be a rebel, not what you might think of as an ordinary officer in the fact he threw parties with the requirement of -- or the fact he would natural the infantry or

the common soldier or dismount and to display. does that jive with your understanding? >> that actually makes him typical of being a prussian officer but that's the impression of the impression it comes out of the 19th century and out of the 18th. one of the thing he provides most about the prussian army of the weight certainly had a reputation for fierce discipline and morale of the car rather liberal doses, the calling of an officer was supposed be not just a noble one but a paternal one. an officer was supposed to temper discipline with care and love and concern, to always keep professional distance from his men but always to make sure physically they were well taken care of and look out for their needs and share their privations and when it came to drill frederick the great himself drilled individual battalions and individual companies. that was the duty of the prussian officer to train the men.

that's one thing, one of the problems steuben had with the american practice that he thought too close to the british practice that training was largely left to sergeant and officers stayed out of it. to him, officer chip was a privilege, it was a responsibility. and really good company officer should be working for harder than his men. it's something you see from his correspondence with his fellow prussian officers or the memoirs of prussian officers in the time of the war these were men who drink and party allot and there was nothing especially stiff about the prussian officer corps except in so far they probably took their craft a little bit more seriously because frederick the great remanded of them and other officers at the time. a rebel in the sense that perhaps maybe not so much a rebel but progressive would be a better term in that on like wood

is often said about him that he simply took the prussian system of discipline and translated english and made it simple for americans, for citizen soldiers i guess would be a better way of putting it, that it really wasn't that, that steuben was, for example, a very strong proponent of many things coming from the french military practice. so when he created his manual and system of tactics he incorporated cutting edge tactical concepts the french had been experimenting with in the 17 seventies and hadn't put in practice and rolled them into his new system but in terms of conduct i would say it is typical of a prussian officer. >> was he instrumental in training the troops that crossed the delaware river at christmas

time and washington's crossing? >> he will send in the united states yet, that was a year before he a ride. he and arrived in the summer of 1777 and that was 1776. >> how old was he when he came? >> when he arrived in 1777 he would have been 47-years-old so quite a dim stage dance it was considered the time for someone who held the and rank of captain. >> going back when he was in europe and wanted to come to this country but had trouble finding someone to sponsor him, he couldn't get anybody to pay his fair, that was one scene. in the next scene if i missed something here benjamin franklin and silence dnr extolling his merits, giving him high rank, telling him how great he is. there seems to be disconnect between -- >> it's not so much as silence demon and benjamin franklin didn't think highly of him the

first time. he did visit twice. first in june and later august 1777. the first time he arrived of course he was expecting accolades and immediate rank and commission and when the dean, of course both of their hands were tied they couldn't give commission, this was forced upon them by congress, but dean was enthusiastic because he engineered his arrival more than franklin even though franklin gets more of the credit. they simply told steuben they could not give him a commission. they could not guarantee that he could find a commission once he got to the united states and they couldn't even pay his way and at that point, steuben, who had a fairly high notion of his talent and had testimonials from the french foreign minister and

minister of war and famous playwright, all these people without for him and steuben left and a huff and went back where she hoped to find a job. he was, in the meantime -- because they really wanted to bring him to the united states and dean did for that matter, too -- more or less the debris worked out was basically this, that he would go bankrolled, at least his voyage would be bankrolled by the government but donner in a covert way by the shuttle company -- shadow company providing aid to the americans so france could maintain its neutrality officially. so he actually went on one of the company ships, bankrolled

and technically as a loan but technically it was a gift so all the difference, -- the only difference between the visits is that the officials at the french court work out a way of funding the voyage but the conditions are beyond that the same steuben went over without commission, without any guarantee of commission only some testimonials that hopefully would get him to congress. >> what do you feel to be steuben's most notable example leading troops in battle? >> leading troops in battle -- >> can i rephrase that? during the american revolution. >> okay, yeah, that's what i was thinking actually anyway. well, of course there is a relatively limited number of

things he did. he did on officially leave troops in monmouth and since he helped recruit some of the shattered troops from lee's a sold. he commanded the vision and yorktown. he was more or less the continental commander in virginia between the time the agreement left virginia the end of 1780 and unlawfully at shows up in the late spring of 81. but i would say of all those things probably the one he found most satisfying and the one that shows him to the best affect is and one of the more famous book the battle of lampert outside of petersburg in may of 1781 where he actually managed to delay a significantly larger british force to delay the crossing of the river at petersburg but not while commanding continental trips, commanding the militia

they gathered together between him and thomas muhlenberg. they had managed to whip into shape in a short period of time and realize that have the affect. after that i would say monmouth, but again his combat experience and the revolution was very limited to basically monmouth and the virginia campaign and his brief experience in repelling the invasion of new jersey in the summer of 1780. >> he said that steuben's experience was even more valuable, his service in the prussian army because this idea of a staff officer, of a general staff was something that didn't exist in the british and french armies at the time to the same

degree. >> right. and of course it didn't formally exist in the prussian army. the origins were there. the idea that it made sense to have a well organized staff overseas with the physical operations of the army and one of the things that, one of the elements of practice, military practice that steuben wanted to introduce into the american army was the practice of daily meetings, very formalized structure meetings between the commander in chief, divisional commanders and the leading staff officers, the general, the quartermaster general and so forth. this is something that definitely comes out of the prussian experience and something that he was constantly critical of the british in terms of the way the organized --

release critical of the british on everything and that's not just his own prejudice but by the standards of contemporaries and this goes against a lot of commonly accepted knowledge about the revolution where revolutionary war scholars like to assert americans fought in the british army the best army in the world and contemporaries in europe at that point would have laughed at that notion the british army was considered to be a good army but second-rate compared to the russian austrian and french armies. but steuben was kind of dismissive of anything the british did. he felt the men were good and well trained and the officers were an imaginative and overly conservative and that when it came to administrative practices the british army was simply nowhere near the same league as the prussian. that is a good point.

>> some historians claim training steuben was a moot point due to the fact after valley forge other than the troops he trained fault sporadically. what are your thoughts on that? >> certainly i see the point because you are right, there is no real open pitch battle after monmouth or anything that meets that category. i don't think however that without that kind of training perhaps yorktown would have gone as smoothly as it did and certainly the kind of training steuben did with the virginia militia showed itself to the effect on plan fer and others but i think part of the idea wasn't just having in armies that could take on the british and actually take on the british. part of the idea was having that army whether it fault or not having the army there and in

fact in steuben's estimation, having respectable european army was something that made the united states respectable power that i think managed to beat the british which of course he certainly hope it would that it should be done by conventional means and the united states should demonstrate it can take on similar armies in the future so i think certainly in the long view there were very good reasons in opposing that kind of discipline and training, the european way of war imposed upon the united states. >> did de steuben have any influence on the way that war was called in the southern theater? >> yeah, now in the carolinas not so much. he hoped to certainly in the end 1780 he was sent, washington sent him with nathaniel greene

to resurrect the basically dead army in the carolinas. steuben never made it that far. he and green stopped in virginia and saw what imminent threat of invasion there is a the end of 1780 and greenup left steuben to organize defenses and raise troops. so he played a major role in terms of keeping virginia largely british free throughout 1781 and keeping the state open until such time as lafayette and the french could come down to stave off cornwallis invasion so in that sense, yes, and he did do a fair amount, not as much as he had hoped increasing supply and the continental line flight in the carolinas against cornwallis. so there is an influence. certainly it's not the same kind of