The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-12-07

] dtiCy ToISC anu uIillCu ttiCtu lfito
ap efficient body of troops. A new
era dawned upon the army Of Inde-
pendence when Steuben was ap-
! pointed Inspector General. AtMon-
mouth, when a good part of the
army seemed involved IN inextrico-
bic confusion, owing to the captious
conduct of General Lee, it was Steu
ben who by a few energetic and sa-
gacious commands set things to
rights and saved the American cause
from disaster. When Steuben rode
down the line looking, as one has
said, like the god of war HIMSELF"
and giving orders with as much
self-possession as if on dress parade,
the soldiers who had been drilled so
effectively amid the SHOWS of Valley
Forge, responded with an alacrlty
and precision that made men like
Alexander Hamilton confess that
never till that hour had they under
stood what discipline could do for
an army. With General Greene he
was a member of the court martial
which tried and codemned to death
the unfortunate Major Andre. 9th
er very difficult and delicate duties
he discharged from time to time. He
enjoyed the affectionate esteem and
confidence of Washington, Greene,
Knox, Laurens and Hamilton, yea,
of all the noble and patriotic spirits
with whom he came in contract in
those days that tried mems souls.
From intriguers like Conway and
Gates he stood aloof. With Greene
he repaired to the South after the in
glorious ,areer of Gates had fearful
ly demoralized the cause of Inde-
pendence in that quarter. 1t was
his province 10 organize and hastily
forward recruits from Virginia, which
was very arduous work owing to the
inefliciency of the provincial authori-
ties and the detection from previous
defeats. With n body of these new
levies he headed off Benedict Ar
mold and prevented him from doing
much meditated mischief in one of
his marauding expeditions into Vir-
ginia.
Lafayette's success in battling
CORVALLIS, after the confident Eng
lishman had exclaimed, THE boy
cannot escape me now," and after
wards in cooping up his pursuer at
Yorktown along with the flower and
strength of the British army, was
largely due to the preliminary work
of Stenben.
And when the siege actually be-
gan, Steuben was the presiding geni-
US. He was the only American
officer who had ever been present at
a siege, and his services were in
valuable in that closing climax of
the Revolutionary war. Prompt
and decisive work had to be done
before the English army should be
relieved or reinforced. Steuben had
been at ihe siege of Prague when IA
years ol [. He had learned the art
Of war rnder Frederick the Great,
one ef. whose trusted officers and ef-
ficient aid.de-camps he had been du
ring the Seven Years War Work
in the trenches was nothing new to
him. So vigorously did he push
the enemy, and so gallant had the
outworks of the British been carried
by the French, that CORVALLIS, de-
spairing finally of relief and escape
offered to surrender just in time to
escape a general assault from the
combined armies OF Washington and
Rochambeau.
Well may the Government invite
the Steubens OF Germany no less
than the Lafayettes of France to be
present at the great centennial cele-
bration of the surrender Of Cornwall
lis at Yorktown.
Well may our civic and military
authorities do honor to the Steu-
ben representatives, who, after q
hundred years of national progress,
have come across the ocean to take
part in the festivities that commend
rate the closing scene in the great
drama of the American Revolution.
And passing strange it is that none
of our Church papers have yet re-
ferred to the relations of the noble
old Baron to our Reformed Zion.--
Karos IN Reformed Messenger.