Military officer; born in
Magdeburg, Prussia, Nov. 15, 1730; educated at Neisse and
Breslau.
At the siege of
Prague he was, at the age of fourteen years, a volunteer under his father, and was so distinguished at
Prague and
Rossbach in 1757 that he was made adjutant-general the next year.
In 1761 he was sent prisoner
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to
St. Petersburg, but was soon released, and in 1762 was placed on the staff of Frederick the
Great of
Prussia.
In 1764 he was appointed grand-marshal and general of the guard of the
Prince of
Hohenzollern-Hechingen, who made him a knight of the Order of Fidelity.
Leaving an ample income, he came to
America late in
Baron Von Steuben. 1777 (arriving at
Portsmouth, N. H., in November), and joined the army under
Washington at
Valley Forge.
He was appointed inspector-general of the army with the rank of majorgeneral in March, 1778, and fought as a volunteer in the battle of
Monmouth in June.
Steuben introduced thorough discipline in the army, and prepared a manual of tactics which was approved by Congress.
He
commanded in
Virginia in 1781, and was distinguished at
Yorktown in October.
The
State of New Jersey gave him a small farm at the close of the war, and the
State of New York gave him 16,000 acres of wild land in
Oneida county.
The national government gave him an annuity of $2,500. He withdrew from society, built a log-house on his domain in New York (afterwards
Steubenville), and lived there until his death, Nov. 28, 1794.
He gave a tenth of his estate to his aides—North,
Popham, and
Walker—and his servants, and parcelled the remainder among twenty or thirty tenants.
He was generous, witty, cheerful, and of polished manners.
Steuben was buried in his garden at
Steubenville.
Afterwards, agreeably to his desires, his aides had his remains wrapped in his cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried in a grave in the town of
Steuben, about 7 miles northwest of
Trenton Falls.
There, in 1826, a monument was erected over his grave by private subscription, the recumbent slab bearing only his name and title.
His grateful aide,
Colonel North, caused a great mural monument to be erected to his memory upon the walls of the German Reformed Church edifice in Nassau Street, between John Street and Maiden Lane, New York City, with a long and eulogistic inscription.
On the day that
Washington resigned his commission as commanderin-chief he wrote to
Steuben, making full acknowledgment of the valuable services rendered by him in the course of the war. As a proper testimonial of
Steuben's merits in a military capacity, the letter is here inserted.
my dear
Baron,—Although I have taken frequent opportunities, in public and private, of acknowledging your great zeal, attention, and abilities in perform-
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419]
ing the duties of your office, yet I wish to make use of this last moment of my public life to signify in the strongest terms my entire approbation of your conduct, and to express my sense of the obligations the public is under to you for your faithful and meritorious services.
I beg you will be convinced, my dear sir, that I should rejoice if it could ever be in my power to serve you more essentially than by expressions of regard and affection; but in the mean time I am persuaded you will
not be displeased with this farewell token of my sincere friendship and esteem for you.
This is the last letter I shall write while I continue in the service of my country.
The hour of my resignation is fixed at twelve to-day; after which I shall become a private citizen on the banks of the
Potomac, where I shall be glad to embrace you, and testify the great esteem and consideration with which
