Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben ( born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben ; September 17 , 1730 – November 28 , 1794 ) , also referred to as the Baron von Steuben , was a Prussian - born military officer who served as inspector general and Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War . He is credited with being one of the fathers of the Continental Army in teaching them the essentials of military drills , tactics , and disciplines . He wrote the " Revolutionary War Drill Manual " , the book that served as the standard United States drill manual until the War of 1812 . He served as General George Washington ' s chief of staff in the final years of the war . Service in Hohenzollern - Hechingen . In 1764 Steuben became to Fürst Josef Friedrich Wilhelm of Hohenzollern - Hechingen . In 1769 , he started using the title of baron , based on a falsified lineage prepared by his father . He was the only courtier to accompany his incognito prince to France in 1771 , hoping to borrow money . Failing to find funds , they returned to Germany in 1775 , deeply in debt . Steuben traveled to Ireland in the summer of 1777 . As luck would have it , he had formally been introduced to the French Minister of War , Claude Louis , Comte de Saint - Germain . The Count , fully realizing the potential of an officer with Prussian general staff training , further introduced him to Benjamin Franklin . Upon the Count ' s recommendation , Steuben was introduced to George Washington by means of a letter from Franklin as a " Lieutenant General in the King of Prussia ' s service " , an exaggeration of his actual credentials that appears to be based on a mistranslation of his service record . He was advanced travel funds and left Europe from Marseilles . American Revolution . On September 26 , 1777 , the Baron , his Italian greyhound , Azor ( which he took with him everywhere ) , his young aide de camp Louis de Pontière , his military secretary Pierre Etienne Duponceau , and two other companions , reached Portsmouth , New Hampshire and by December 1 , was extravagantly entertained in Boston . Congress was in York , Pennsylvania , after being ousted from Philadelphia by the British advance . By February 5 , 1778 , Steuben had offered to volunteer without pay ( for the time ) , and by February 23 , Steuben reported for duty to Washington at Valley Forge . Steuben spoke little English and he often yelled to his translator , " Over here ! Swear at him for me ! " Colonel Alexander Hamilton and General Nathanael Greene were of great help in assisting Steuben in drafting a training program for the Army , which found approval with Washington . Training program . Steuben ' s training technique was to create a " model company " ; a group of 120 chosen men who in turn successively trained other personnel at Regimental and Brigade levels . Steuben ' s eccentric personality greatly enhanced his mystique . In full military dress uniform , he trained the soldiers — who , at this point , were themselves greatly lacking in proper clothing — swearing and yelling at them up and down in German and French . When that was no longer successful , he recruited Captain Benjamin Walker , his French - speaking aide , to curse at them for him in English . Steuben would write out the next day ' s orders in German , Walker would translate them into French , and a French - speaking officer would then translate them into English . Steuben introduced a system of progressive training , beginning with the school of the soldier , with and without arms , and going through the school of the regiment . This corrected the previous policy of simply assigning personnel to regiments . Each company commander was made responsible for the training of new men , but actual instruction was done by sergeants specifically selected for being the best obtainable . Steuben established standards of sanitation and camp layouts that would still be standard a century and a half later . There had previously been no set arrangement of tents and huts . Men relieved themselves where they wished and when an animal died , it was stripped of its meat and the rest was left to rot where it lay . Steuben laid out a plan to have rows for command , officers and enlisted men . Kitchens and latrines were on opposite sides of the camp , with latrines on the downhill side . There was the familiar arrangement of company and regimental streets . Perhaps Steuben ' s biggest contribution to the American Revolution was training in the use of the bayonet . Since the Battle of Bunker Hill , Americans had been mainly dependent upon using their ammunition to win battles . Throughout the early course of the war , Americans used the bayonet mostly as a cooking skewer or tool rather than as a fighting instrument . Steuben ' s introduction of effective bayonet charges became crucial . In the Battle of Stony Point , American soldiers attacked with unloaded muskets and won the battle solely on Steuben ' s bayonet training . The first results of Steuben ' s training were in evidence at the Battle of Barren Hill , 20 May 1778 and then again at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 . Steuben , by then serving in Washington ' s headquarters , was the first to determine the enemy was heading for Monmouth . Washington recommended appointment of Steuben as inspector general on April 30 ; Congress approved it on May 5 . During the winter of 1778 – 1779 , Steuben prepared " Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States , " commonly known as the " Blue Book " . Its basis was the training plan he had devised at Valley Forge . Southern campaign . In 1780 Steuben sat on the court - martial of the British Army officer Major John André , captured and charged with espionage in conjunction with the defection of General Benedict Arnold . He later traveled with Nathanael Greene , the new commander of the Southern campaign . He quartered in Virginia since the American supplies and soldiers would be provided to the army from there . During the spring of 1781 , he aided Greene in the campaign in the south , culminating in the delivery of 450 Virginia Continentals to Lafayette in June . He was forced to take sick leave , rejoining the army for the final campaign at Yorktown , where his role was as commander of one of the three divisions of Washington ' s troops . Steuben gave assistance to Washington in demobilizing the army in 1783 as well as aiding in the defense plan of the new nation . He was discharged from the military with honor on March 24 , 1783 . Final years . Steuben became an American citizen by act of the Pennsylvania legislature in March 1784 ( and later by the New York authorities in July 1786 ) . With the war over , Steuben resigned from service and first settled on Manhattan Island , where he became a prominent figure and elder in the German Reformed Church . However , even with Congress giving him large sums of money , he still managed to become largely indebted . In 1790 , Congress gave him a pension of $ 2500 a year which he had to keep until his death . On December 23 , 1783 , the State of New Jersey presented him with the use of an estate now known as Zabriskie - Steuben House , which had been confiscated from Loyalist Jan Zabriskie in 1781 . Located in New Bridge , New Jersey , the estate included a gristmill and about 40 acres of land . The Legislature made the grant on condition that he " hold , occupy and enjoy the said estate in person , and not by tenant " . Gen . Philemon Dickinson of the New Jersey Militia informed the baron of this gift and informed him that his recent inquiries showed that " there are on the premises an exceeding good House , an excellent barn , together with many useful outbuildings , all of which I am told , want some repairs . . . there is . . . a Grist - mill ; a good Orchard , some meadow Ground , & plenty of Wood . The distance from N York by land 15 miles , but you may keep a boat & go from your own door to N York by water — Oysters , Fish & wild fowl in abundance — Possession will be given to you in the Spring , when you will take a view of the premises . " On September 5 , 1788 , the New Jersey Legislature repealed its previous acts and invested Baron von Steuben with full title to the former Zabriskie estate . Recognizing his predicament and hoping to save himself from further financial embarrassment , Steuben wrote to William North in October 1788 , saying : " The jersey Estate must and is to be sold . Walker is my administrator , all debts are to be paid out of it . " On November 6 , 1788 , Steuben again wrote to North at his new home in Duanesburg , noting that " My jersey Estate is Advertised but not yet Sold , from this Walker Shall immediately pay to you the money , you so generously lend me and all my debts in New - York will be payed . I support my present poverty with more heroism than I Expected . All Clubs and parties are renounced , I seldom leave the House . " Steuben paid a considerable sum of money to repair the war damages to the Zabriskie - Steuben House and to restore its commercial operations , leaving a permanent mark on the building that bears his name . The Steuben House is the only extant eighteenth - century building that Steuben owned . Steuben eventually settled on a small estate in the vicinity of Rome , New York , on land granted to him for his military service . He later assisted in the founding of the Society of the Cincinnati and was appointed a regent for what evolved into the State University of New York . He never married and had no children . He left his estate to General Benjamin Walker and Captain William North , who had served as his aides - de - camp during the war , and with whom he had had an " extraordinarily intense emotional relationship . . . treating them as surrogate sons " . He is buried at what is now the Steuben Memorial State Historic Site . Legacy . Generally , Von Steuben Day takes place in September in many cities throughout the United States . It is often considered the German - American event of the year . Participants march , dance , wear German costumes and play German music , and the event is attended by millions of people . The German - American Steuben Parade is held annually in September in New York City . It is one of the largest parades in the city and is traditionally followed by an Oktoberfest in Central Park as well as celebrations in Yorkville , Manhattan , a German section of New York City . The German - American Steuben Parade has been taking place since 1958 . Chicago also hosts a von Steuben Day parade , which is featured in the American movie " Ferris Bueller ' s Day Off " . Philadelphia hosts to a smaller Steuben Parade in the Northeast of the city . The Steuben Society was founded in 1919 as " an educational , fraternal , and patriotic organization of American citizens of German background " . In the difficult post - World War I years the Society helped the German - American community to reorganize . It is now one of the largest organizations for Americans of German extraction . A warship , a submarine , and an ocean liner ( later pressed into military service ) were named in von Steuben ' s honor . In World War I the captured German ship was renamed as USS " Von Steuben " , and in World War II there was the Dampfschiff " General von Steuben " , an ill - fated German luxury passenger ship which was turned into an armed transport ship during the war . During the Cold War , the US Navy submarine was named for him . Several locations in the United States are also named Steuben , most of them in his honor . Examples include Steuben County , New York , Steuben County , Indiana , and the city of Steubenville , Ohio . Several buildings are named for Steuben , among them Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Chicago , Illinois , as well as one of the cadet barracks buildings at Valley Forge Military Academy and College . Von Steuben is one of four European military leaders who assisted the American cause during the Revolution honored with a statue in Lafayette Square just north of the White House in Washington , D . C . Other statues of Steuben can be found in Utica , New York , the garden of the German Embassy in Washington , D . C . , as well as in Potsdam and in Steuben ' s home town of Magdeburg . Another Steuben Monument stands in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . In Berlin , Germany , one stands near the Allied Museum on Clayallee in the former American sector of the divided city . The Steuben House presented to Steuben as a gift for his services in the Continental Army is located at New Bridge Landing in River Edge , New Jersey . The house and surrounding farmland were seized in 1781 from a Loyalist family . The house looks much as it did after Steuben renovated it . The State of New Jersey took possession of the historic mansion and one acre of ground for $ 9 , 000 on June 27 , 1928 . It was opened as a public museum in September 1939 . The Bergen County Historical Society opens the building for special events . It is under the jurisdiction of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission . Other tributes include Steuben Field , the stadium of the Hamilton College football team . Von Steuben , acting as Alexander Hamilton ' s surrogate , laid the cornerstone of the school . Upon graduating , all Hamilton seniors receive as a gift from the college a cane with a tricorn hat at its top in reference to von Steuben . The various depictions of Steuben in popular ( American ) media include portrayals by Nehemiah Persoff in the 1979 U . S . TV miniseries " The Rebels " , Kurt Knudson in the 1984 TV miniseries " George Washington " , and being voiced by Austrian - American Arnold Schwarzenegger in the animated series " Liberty ' s Kids " . There are many books on von Steuben . Most recently , Paul Lockhart , a professor at Wright State University in Dayton , Ohio , wrote " The Drillmaster of Valley Forge " as the first comprehensive biography of General von Steuben in more than 80 years . In 2007 , a popular documentary DVD was released by LionHeart FilmWorks and director Kevin Hershberger titled " Von Steuben ' s Continentals : The First American Army " . The 60 - minute , live - action documentary details the life , uniforms , camp life , food , weapons , equipment and drill of the Continental soldier 1775 – 1781 , as taught and developed by Baron von Steuben . Homosexuality rumors . Von Steuben was forced to leave Baden ( a German state ) where he was threatened with prosecution for homosexuality . When he joined Washington ' s army at Valley Forge in February 1778 he was accompanied by two young European aides , one aged 17 . Despite rumors about his parties , there never was an investigation of Steuben and he received a Congressional pension after the war .