In Washington’s Lafayette Park is a statue of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben. (Dreamstime)
The name of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben is not exactly a household word.
But like the Marquis de Lafayette, the German nobleman is a “foreign friend” and major contributor to the American Revolution leading to this country’s birth as an independent nation 250 years ago.
So the District of Columbia Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America on July 28 gave a rousing salute to Baron von Steuben and celebrated his contributions that helped make the U.S. and its army what they are today.
To no one’s surprise, the event was held at the German American Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. An overflow crowd enjoyed a thoroughly German celebration: German delicacies (all shipped straight from the old country, organizers told Newsmax), beer, and oompah music from the Lost Lederhosen band.
Why, many Americans ask, was such a relatively little-remembered figure from the American Revolution — and from a foreign country, no less — honored in such a big manner?
“Because without Baron von Steuben, we might not have won our revolution against the British,” Ron Phillips, governor of the D.C. Society, told Newsmax.
“He not only is regarded as a founder of our present U.S. Army, but from the discipline he installed in the insurgents to the food he helped provide to feed George Washington’s army, Baron von Steuben stands foursquare alongside our Founding Fathers. You might call him our ‘Founding Stepfather from Germany.'”
A Prussian-born career officer, von Steuben was moved by the American Revolution and greatly admired Washington — so much that he came to the U.S. to help get what was initially a group of ragtag revolutionaries into fighting trim.
He did. The lack of discipline that plagued the fledgling Continental Army was soon cured with German discipline.
Baron von Steuben wrote the army regulations manual, which the U.S. Army used for decades and which influenced later army manuals.
Corruption and mismanagement were also addressed by Baron von Steuben, who instituted reforms to improve military administration and accountability.
Baron von Steuben also turned his attention to the army’s chronic supply problems, helping improve the management of badly needed provisions.
Washington recommended that Congress appoint his German benefactor inspector general of the Continental Army, and Congress did so. Washington soon made von Steuben his chief of staff.
With the war won, Baron von Steuben was awarded an estate in New York and a gift he would cherish: American citizenship.
The saga of von Steuben is told in the new book “Feeding Washington’s Army,” written by Ricardo Herrera, a U.S. Army War College professor. Herrera spoke to the event.
Baron von Steuben remains a significant yet still remote figure in the saga of America’s founding. But thanks to the Order of the Founders and Patriots, he is not forgotten.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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