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Show Unsung Hero Not Forgotten Nov. 15 was the birthday anniversary of a sometimes-forgotten sometimes-forgotten hero of the American Revolution, Baron I'riedrich von Steuben, Steuben was born in Magdeburg, Prussia, in 17.10. His father was an engineer en-gineer in the Prussian Army. HE SERVED as a volunteer at the age of 14 in the War of Austrian Succession. By 1755, he was an officer and soon afterwards af-terwards was appointed to the staff of Frederick the Great, on which he served during the Seven Years War. After the war, he looked elsewhere, first to England. On his way there in 1777, he passed through Paris. Count de St. Germain, then French Minister of Wur, his friend, urged him to go to America to help the Americans in their revolution. re-volution. ( The French were at war with England.) STEUBEN MET with Benjamin Ben-jamin Franklin, and Silas Deane, American Commissioners Commis-sioners in Paris, and agreed to go to America as a volunteer. The French fitted out a ship with cannon and ammunition on which he sailed in late September Sep-tember of 1777, arriving Dec. I. HE PRESENTED himself to Congress and then went to Valley Forge, where Washington Washing-ton received him on the 23rd of February, 1778, making him Inspector-General of the army. It was Steuben who trained and drilled the colonists. colon-ists. Congress belatedly voted him a commission but never reimbursed him for many expenditures ex-penditures out of his own pocket. After Yorklown, he was, however, voted a $2,500 annuity by Congress; and Virginia, Vir-ginia, New Jersey, Pennsylva nia and New York voted him tracts of land. HE DECIDED to remain in America and made his home on the tract in New York, twelve miles north of Uitca, which was later laid out as the town of Steuben. He died there four years later, November 28, 1794. Thus von Steuben fared better bet-ter than his fellow countryman, country-man, Baron Johann de Kalb who fought valiantly for the Colonials and was killed at Camden, S.C. in 1780; a monument monu-ment there now honors his memory. |