STEUBEN, BARON VON, FREDERICK WILLIAM AUGUSTUS HENRY FERDINAND (i730-1794), German soldier, born at Magdeburg, Prussia, Sept. 17, 1730, was a de scendant of a noble family, which for generations had produced soldiers. From his 14th year, Steuben led a soldier's life. Reared in the rigorous military school of Frederick the Great, he took part in many battles of the Seven Years' War, where he so dis tinguished himself as to attract the attention of King Frederick, who appointed him as his aide-de-camp (1762). After the close of the Seven Years' War, he resigned from the army and became grand-marshal at the court of the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hech ingen, and, after a service of ten years, accepted a similar posi tion at the court of the margrave of Baden. In 1777, his old friend the count of St. Germain, then the French minister of war, persuaded him to go to the assistance of the American colonists.
Steuben arrived at Portsmouth (N.H.), on Dec. r, 1777, and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer. In March 1778 he began drilling the inexperienced soldiers at Valley Forge ; and by May he was made inspector-general or drill-master. He trained the soldiers admirably, adapting Prussian military ideas to the needs of his pupils. Results of his work were shown in the next campaign, particularly at Monmouth, where he rallied the dis ordered, retreating troops of Gen. Charles Lee. His Regulations
for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (1779) was of great value to the army. He was a member of the court-martial which tried Maj. John Andre in 1780, and after Gen. Horatio Gates's defeat at Camden was placed in command of the district of Virginia, with instructions "to collect, organize, discipline and expedite the recruits for the Southern Army." In April 1781 he was superseded in command of Virginia by La Fayette, and later took part in the siege of Yorktown. Retir ing from the service after the war, he passed the last years of his life at Steubenville (N.Y.), where he died on Nov. 28, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey gave him grants of land for his services, and Congress passed a vote of thanks and gave him a gold-hilted sword in 1784, and later granted him a pension of $2,500.
See Frederick Kapp, The Life of Frederick William von Steuben (1859) ; and George W. Greene, The German Element in the War of American Independence (Cambridge, Mass., 1876) ; Francis Bowen, "Life of Baron Steuben" in J. Sparks's Library of American Biography, vol. viii., pp. 119-202 (1902) ; Rudolf Cronan, "The Army of the American Revolution and its Organizer," American Historical Review vol. xxxi. pp. (1923).