Baron Von Steuben's Impact on the Continental Army

Baron Von Steuben's Impact on the Continental Army

Andrew J Groneman

4336849

American Military University

History 101

Professor Michael Terry

26 August 2012

Baron Von Steuben's Impact on the Continental Army

The American Revolution started with a band of confident and patriotic colonials trying to bestow something on the New World that had never been tried before. They were a rag-tag, undisciplined, under trained, and under supplied group of citizen soldiers. After suffering numerous defeats and disappointments at the hands of the strongest Army in the world; they found themselves hunkered down in a place called Valley Forge. Freezing, starving, and miserable; all looked lost. Then arrived a man who would help change everything and possibly save the entire revolution, Baron Von Steuben.(1 ) Van Steuben is considered the catalyst that developed fledgling Continental Army into an effective fighting force.

When he Von Steuben arrived, the Continentals were extremely weary of a possibly self-proclaimed European Aristocrat coming into their ranks. They were used to European trained Officers having sense of entitlement and "demanding rank and treasure".(2) But the Baron was different. He serves as a volunteer and had absolute disdain for the Old World style of leadership. After learning that the Baron was not the typical officer, they adopted a "wait and see" approach to his leadership. (3) After all, things couldn't get much worse.

Upon his arrival, Von Steuben inspected the ranks; observing the training, encampment, and the basic daily routine before crafting his training plan. He developed a plan to instill discipline and basic military order to the fairly disorganized bunch. But since the Baron didn't speak English, he had to give his orders in French and then have them translated so the troops could understand him.(4) Needless to say, things were extremely difficult at first; but eventually the language barrier was overcome and the Continentals began becoming what they had yearned to be; a well-disciplined, highly trained Army who could possibly stand up to the British Red Coats.

Von Steuben knew that the men he was training were now raw untested recruits. They had been through the ring crucible of fire known as battle. So with that in mind he developed his training to use those experiences. This one tactical training decision did more for gaining the trust and confidence of the soldiers than anything else. Von Steuben used past battles to show where they went wrong in their decision making and how