Meet the gay man who actually won America her independence
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/07/meet-gay-man-actually-won-america-independence/Before von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge, the Revolutionary Army was a loosely organized, rag-tag band of men with little military training or discipline. The military fumbled through the beginning of the war for independence lacking training and organization. Gen. George Washington and the Continental Congress knew that, without help from additional seasoned military experts, the colonies would clearly lose.
Since Washington himself was the best the colonies had, they looked to Europe for someone who could train the troops. To that end, Washington wrote the colonies’ representatives in Paris, among them Benjamin Franklin, to see what he could come up with. Franklin, a renowned inventor, was treated as a celebrity in the French court. This would be pivotal in achieving his two major objectives in France: winning financial support for the American Revolution and finding military leaders who could bring a semblance of order to the Revolutionary Army.
Franklin learned of a “brilliant Prussian” military genius, Lt. Gen. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who had a string of successes across Germanic Europe. But there was one problem. He’d been asked to depart many of those states and countries because of his “affections for members of his own sex,” according to biographer Paul Lockhart’s The Drillmaster of Valley Forge.
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I read a long time ago of him , how he came to help Gen.Washington at the right time .
Last edited Mon Jul 4, 2016, 10:09 PM - Edit history (3)
Von Steuben had been a commissioned officer, but promoted to general by Ben Frankin when Frankin was in France. It was well known Washington greatly admired Frederick the Great, who was still ruling Prussia at that time period. Thus sending a Prussian "General" to Washington was like sending a messenger from God to Washington.
Von Steuben is often called a "Sergeant" for one of the first thing he did was drill the men, which American Sergeants had always done, but demanded the officers do it also, so both officers and enlisted ranks would work better together.
The second thing Von Steuben did was write his " Blue book", which was how troops were to form up to fight. The US Army had used various drills before Von Steuben, but Von Steuben made the first book to be universally adopted by the US Army. The "Blue Book" is barely translated of the Prussian book of the same time period (one result is the US march pace is 120 paces to the minute, not the British 60 paces to the minute). The "Blue Book" covered how men were to march, where they were to stand on the battlefield, when they are to eat and even what to do when a soldier is sick (they were to be given a straw filled mattress, when the soldier was no longer sick, the Linen of the mattress were to be boiled and the straw burned and this was 100 years before doctors accepted the germ theory of disease).
Books like the "Blue Book" was classified in all Armies for it made clear what flags formed in the middle of a unit, and what flags were at the ends of the unit. Enlisted ranks formed up on those flags. Since units form up next to other units, all the enemy saw was a series of two flags. Which flags marked the middle of a unit and which flags marked were two units bordered each other was important in any attack. You wanted to charge the two end flags of any enemy you faced, not the two flags in the middle of a unit. If you Attack a unit head on, it will fall back on its center, if you hit two units on their flanks, each unit would fall back on its own center and a hole in the line would open up.
Once you understand the tactical significance of how units fought, the importance of what flag flew where was an important tactical advantage. Von Steuben thus advocated that his "Blue Book" be classified so that only senior officers would have it thus very little chance of the enemy finding out about it and using it against the US Army. Washington rejected that advice, Washington wanted the State Militia to be formed up on those same lines, thus Washington ordered it published so anyone could obtain one. Washington decided that it was better for everyone to know how to form up an American military unit even at the cost of the British also knowing that fact.
The "Blue Book" remained the US Army book of regulations till replaced in the 1850s by a book written by General Winfield Scott do to the switch from flintlock muskets to percussion muskets. To what extent the "Blue Book" was actually replaced by the time of of the US Civil War has been debated. The biggest issue is how did US Troops salute after about 1855 till about 1870. Before and after the US Army used the Prussian style salute, for that is how Von Steuben said to salute in his "Blue Book"
the index finger on the eyebrow with the rest of the hand 90 degrees to the ground) Scott based his drill book on the French Army drill manual, which used what we in the US call the British Army style of Salute (the whole flat hand against the forehead).
More on von Steuben's "Blue Book" it does NOT actually go into how to make a Salute without arms:
https://archive.org/details/2575061R.nlm.nih.gov
Here is Scott's Manual of 1857, his description of how to do a salute is on page 32, section 246:
https://archive.org/details/0255005.nlm.nih.gov
"246. When a Soldier without arms, or with side arms only, meets an officer, he is to raise his right arm up to visor of his cap, palm to the front..."
Here is the 1841 Book of Regulations, that mention how to Salute on page 88, section 503 (In 1841 the US adopted the Percussion system of firing a musket, thus required some changes from the "Blue Book" and by 1840s pulp paper had been in use since 1801, replacing the much more expensive linen paper used prior to about 1830, thus a new book was needed and this time broken into numbered section as oppose to just pages and paragraphs).
https://archive.org/details/0255004.nlm.nih.gov
"503. When a Soldier without arms, or with side arms only, meets an officer, he is to continue to move on, but he is to raise his hands to his cap....."
Notice the difference as to HOW to Salute, in 1841 all its says is to bring one's hands up to his cap, in 1857 it clearly states the palm is to be forward, a term NOT in the 1841 regulations. Remember all salutes came from the medieval custom of tipping one's hat to a superior. When black powder came in, your hand became black with the powder, thus to keep the black soot off your hat, you just went through the motion of tipping the hat without touching it. Bringing one's hands up to your cap implies a Prussian style salute more then the English/French Style salute where the flat hand is presented to the superior.
Recent movies tend to show US forces using the English Salute based on Scott's drill book, but when you start seeing photographs of US soldiers saluting (only in the 1870s, cameras were to primitive during the US Civil War to capture troop in actual action thus no salutes in Civil War Photos), it is Prussian Style. By the 1870s Scott's book had been replaced do to the introduction of breech loading rifles. The Prussian military drill was what armies adopted after the Prussians defeated the French in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. Thus it is possible that the present US Army Salute was re-adopted in the 1870s, but it is also possible it never really went away and when a new drill book was needed, the US Army reverted to what the troops were actually doing. Thus the historical debate and no way to actually solve it today (when the first movies about the Civil War were made, in the 1910s, 1920s and even the 1930s, soldiers are shown using Prussian style salutes, we still had veterans alive at that time period and I have NOT read about any of them complaining that the salutes in those movies were wrong, thus an argument that while Scott's manual made the switch, the troops may not have).
Even today the US Army traces its drill and ceremony formations to von Steuben and his "Blue Book", von Steuben set them up and the US Army follows those same basic guidelines to this day.
The importance of the "Blue Book" during the Revolution was made even more important when Washington made von Steuben in Inspector General of the US Army. Von Steuben expanded the power of the Inspector General so much that even today that office is much more important in the US Army then any other Army's Inspector General. Uniformity and maintenance of equipment fall under the authority of the US Army Inspector General and they do their inspectors as set up by von Steuben (with changes dictated by the change in technology since 1777).
One side note, the New England Militia of the colonial time period and during the Revolution was as good as any regular army troops of the same time period. They were well trained and organized. The middle colonies militia were not up to the militia of New England, but still considered good enough to fill in the line of any regulars. Von Steuben job was NOT getting these troops up to fighting ability but to make them more uniform.
Those troops, before von Steuben had even sailed from France to America, had done what Frederick the Great of Prussia called "the greatest military act of the age". When that act occurred the US Army was made up of mostly New England Militia, not regulars. The actual act was after being forced out of New York City, those troops had retreated across New Jersey and stayed intact. in the opinion of Frederick the Great of Prussia no other army in the world could have done that and that included Frederick and his Prussian Army. That is how good the New England Militia was during the Revolution. The middle states militia, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had supported and supplied those retreating troops.
Unlike the Northern Militia, the Southern Militia was just poor (on the actual frontier, the southern militia was as good as the militia in the north, but once you were away from frontier the quality declined rapidly). The main reason for the overall poor quality was in the South (outside of the frontier) the militia was geared more to capturing run a way slaves and doing patrols to prevent such slaves from escaping their masters than doing actual military training. Thus when you read about the "useless militia" during the Revolution that generally is a northern general telling other northern generals not to rely on the southern militia like they had relay on northern militia. The difference in quality was that bad during the Revolution. Von Steuben's reforms had little affect on the southern militia for keeping the slaves from escaping remained the most important job of the Southern Militia, even then over 18,000 slaves escaped to British lines during the Revolution.
Von Steuben is an interesting character of the Revolution, very important to the US Army even long after he was dead, Steubenville Ohio is named after him)..
I enjoyed reading that, and spending a little time in your 'classroom!'
I am actually from upstate NY and grew up very near to a town (not really much of a town, more like an "area"
named after him called Stueben. He died in Utica, NY which is about 20 minutes away from where I grew up. I had heard of him all my life, but never really knew much about him. Thank you for the interesting history!
were constantly at war with each other. The "good old days." 
And to think that we have this whole new crop of dumbasses that want us to return to those times. If those who think that way would only confine their killing to each other the world would be a far better place. But no, they INSIST on dragging the whole world into their self-made Hell EVERY TIME. A pox upon them and their ilk.
