50 Fun Facts About Baron Von Steuben

Because he knew little English, Baron von Steuben drafted his Valley Forge drills in which language?

French was the military language of Europe, so he wrote in it each night and his secretary rushed the lessons into English for morning drill.

A letter billed Baron von Steuben as a lieutenant general; what rank had he really reached in Prussia?

Captain was as high as he rose; a mistranslated staff title turned him into a general on paper, and Congress was duly impressed.

Which habit, kept up in several languages, made Baron von Steuben popular with his troops?

Swearing came so naturally to him that, when his own stock ran out, he called on an aide to curse the men in English for him.

Which Hollywood action star voiced Baron von Steuben in the animated history series Liberty's Kids?

Arnold Schwarzenegger lent his Austrian accent to the Prussian general, in a cast that also had Dustin Hoffman as Benedict Arnold.

Which John Hughes comedy sends its hero onto a float at Chicago's Von Steuben Day parade?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off shot the parade scene in late September, though the story takes place near the end of the school year.

Which weapon did Baron von Steuben say American soldiers had used only to roast their beefsteak?

Bayonet charges became crucial once he had drilled them in, turning what had been a campfire spit into a battle-winning weapon.

Why were Baron von Steuben and his companions nearly arrested on landing in New Hampshire in 1777?

They wore red uniforms that the baron had ordered by mistake, so the people of Portsmouth took the party for British officers.

Who or what was Azor, the companion Baron von Steuben brought across the Atlantic in 1777?

His dog Azor went everywhere with him, and padded along at his side on the road to the winter camp at Valley Forge.

A Valley Forge soldier called Baron von Steuben the perfect personification of which Roman god?

Mars came to the soldier's mind because of the baron's large size, martial bearing and the enormous pistol holsters on his horse.

Which American envoy in Paris wrote the letter that introduced Baron von Steuben to Congress?

Benjamin Franklin met him through a war minister who knew his Prussian staff training, then sent him across the ocean with glowing credentials.

By which colorful nickname is Baron von Steuben's Continental Army drill manual commonly known?

The Blue Book grew out of the training plan he devised at Valley Forge, and Congress approved it as the army's regulations in March 1779.

Valley Forge, where Baron von Steuben drilled George Washington's army in 1778, lies in which state?

Pennsylvania hosted the six-month winter camp, where the baron arrived in February to find an army short of everything except spirit.

As a young Prussian officer, Baron von Steuben served as aide-de-camp to which warrior king?

Frederick the Great chose him as one of 13 young officers for a private course on the art of war, taught by the king himself.

Baron von Steuben was wounded twice while fighting for Prussia in which mid-18th-century conflict?

Seven Years' War service left him wounded at Prague and again at Kunersdorf, and gave him the staff training America later needed.

Baron von Steuben led one of George Washington's three divisions at which Revolutionary War siege?

Yorktown was his final campaign: he had come back from sick leave to command a division, and two years later he helped demobilize the army.

Which young aide to George Washington helped turn Baron von Steuben's drills into English?

Alexander Hamilton helped translate each lesson overnight, so the soldiers could practice it on the parade ground the next day.

In Baron von Steuben's camp plan, what had to sit downhill, on the opposite side from the kitchens?

Latrines went downhill and far from the food because, before he arrived, men had relieved themselves wherever they wished.

On what terms did Baron von Steuben agree to join the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1778?

As an unpaid volunteer, he would be rewarded only after the war and according to his contributions, because Congress was tired of foreigners demanding rank.

Baron von Steuben's birthday, 17 September, is also the date in 1787 when which document was signed?

The U.S. Constitution was signed in Philadelphia on his 57th birthday, so Von Steuben Day parades now fall close to Constitution Day.

Which army post did Congress confirm for Baron von Steuben in May 1778, on George Washington's recommendation?

Inspector General suited a man who found that no books were kept on supplies, clothing or men; his strict inspections saved thousands of muskets.

Baron von Steuben sat on the board that tried which British major, Benedict Arnold's co-conspirator?

John André was caught in civilian clothes, so the board judged him a spy and he was hanged at Tappan in October 1780.

Which June 1778 battle showed British regulars what Baron von Steuben's drills had achieved?

Monmouth ended without a clear winner, but the Continentals fought the British to a standstill only days after marching out of Valley Forge.

Baron von Steuben was born in 1730 in which fortress town on the Elbe, now in Saxony-Anhalt?

Magdeburg still honors its famous son with a cast of the bronze statue of him that stands near the White House.

Baron von Steuben spent most of his first ten years in which country, where his father served Empress Anna?

Russia was home until he was 10, because his engineer father took him along to Crimea and Kronstadt before returning to Prussia.

Steubenville, a city named after a frontier fort honoring Baron von Steuben, lies in which state?

Ohio gained Fort Steuben in 1786, and the town that grew up beside it later produced Rat Pack singer Dean Martin.

New York City's German-American Steuben Parade marches up which famous Manhattan street every September?

Fifth Avenue became the route after the parade outgrew its first homes in Ridgewood and Yorkville, and the day ends with a beer festival in Central Park.

Baron von Steuben's statue joins three other foreign heroes in which park beside the White House?

Lafayette Square puts one foreign ally of the Revolution in each corner, and the baron's bronze, by Albert Jaegers, was dedicated in 1910.

Baron von Steuben presided at the 1783 founding of which hereditary organization of army officers?

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded at Mount Gulian, his Hudson River headquarters, and is named for Cincinnatus, the Roman who went back to his plow.

Baron von Steuben went south in 1780 as second-in-command to which general from Rhode Island?

Nathanael Greene relied on him as instructor and supply officer for the Southern army, whose campaign ground the British down before the final siege.

Which state gave Baron von Steuben a Hackensack River mansion confiscated from a Loyalist?

New Jersey attached a catch: he had to live in the house in person rather than rent it out, and he later sold it to pay his debts.

Although raised Protestant, Baron von Steuben was schooled in Neisse and Breslau by which Catholic order?

Jesuits taught him in two garrison towns, yet he stayed critical of Catholicism and in America became an elder of a German Reformed church.

Baron von Steuben's 1779 drill manual stayed the U.S. Army's official guide until which later conflict?

The War of 1812 marked the end of its run, more than 30 years after he wrote it over a single winter in Philadelphia.

Which future planner of Washington, D.C., drew the illustrations for Baron von Steuben's drill manual?

Pierre L'Enfant was a young officer in the Continental Army at the time, more than a decade before he laid out the federal capital.

During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy gave Baron von Steuben's name to which kind of vessel?

A missile submarine, USS Von Steuben, entered service in 1964; an earlier namesake was a German liner captured in World War I.

The German liner Steuben, named for Baron von Steuben, was torpedoed and sunk in 1945 in which sea?

The Baltic sinking killed an estimated 4,000 evacuees, among them wounded soldiers and refugees; the liner had been renamed for the baron in 1930.

Baron von Steuben left his library and maps to the son of which New York tailor who spied on the British?

Hercules Mulligan was the father of John Mulligan, a young man the baron treated as a son and who inherited his library, maps and $2,500 in cash.

Which U.S. president attended the 1910 unveiling of Baron von Steuben's statue in Washington, D.C.?

William Taft joined a crowd of about 10,000 for the ceremony, and a replica of the bronze was sent to Germany the following year.

Baron von Steuben led about 1,000 militia at the 1781 Battle of Blandford to defend which state?

Virginia was his base for sending men and supplies to the Southern army, and his outnumbered militia fought a delaying action near Petersburg.

Sculptor J. Otto Schweizer made an equestrian statue of Baron von Steuben for which Wisconsin city?

Milwaukee has the mounted bronze, while Schweizer's standing figures of the baron are at Valley Forge and in Utica, New York.

Troops drilled in Baron von Steuben's methods stormed which Hudson River outpost in 1779 with unloaded muskets?

Stony Point fell to a midnight assault under Anthony Wayne, whose men were ordered to keep silent and trust to cold steel alone.

Baron von Steuben built his 'model company' at Valley Forge around men from which unit?

The Commander-in-Chief's Guard, George Washington's own bodyguard, learned each lesson first and then helped teach it to the other regiments.

Which English-born officer began interpreting for Baron von Steuben at Valley Forge and became his heir?

Benjamin Walker became his aide within weeks, was later formally adopted by the unmarried baron, and went on to sit in Congress.

George Washington wrote his last letter as a serving general, to Baron von Steuben, in which city in 1783?

Annapolis is where he wrote it on the morning he resigned his commission, telling the baron he would be glad to embrace him on the banks of the Potomac.

Friedrich von Steuben gained the title of baron while running the court of which small German principality?

Hohenzollern-Hechingen kept him for more than a decade, but its prince was so short of money that the two went abroad together trying to borrow some.

As 'Belisarius', Baron von Steuben branded the Massachusetts government an oligarchy during which 1786 uprising?

Shays's Rebellion saw indebted farmers rise against the state's tax collecting, and the retired general took his pen name from a great Byzantine commander.

Baron von Steuben succeeded which Irish-born general, namesake of a 1777 'cabal' against George Washington?

Thomas Conway offered his resignation as a ploy in April 1778, but this time Congress accepted it, leaving the post to the baron.

Which 17-year-old secretary sailed to America with Baron von Steuben and later became a noted linguist?

Peter Du Ponceau interpreted for the baron during the war, then settled in Philadelphia and became known for his work on the indigenous languages of the Americas.

A replica of Washington's Baron von Steuben statue was given to Germany and erected in 1911 in which city?

Potsdam's copy was gone by 1950; a new cast went up in West Berlin in 1987, and another replica returned to Potsdam after reunification.

After years of petitioning for compensation, what did Baron von Steuben finally receive from Congress in 1790?

A yearly pension of $2,500 eased debts so heavy that he had put his estate up for sale and given up clubs and parties.

Which aide and adopted heir of Baron von Steuben later served briefly as a U.S. senator from New York?

William North named two of his sons after the baron and shared out the property he inherited among old army comrades.