I live near Valley Forge National Park, and so when people visit me I like to take them there. Each time I learn something new.

A favorite Valley Forge landmark is the statue of General Friedrich von Steuben. Where others had tried and failed, he instilled order and pride into Washington's starved and dirty Revolutionary soldiers encamped during a winter so awful that its memory still evokes two timeless expressions: Paine's "times that try men's souls" and Shakespeare's "winter of our discontent":

George Washington's troops could easily be followed as they trudged through the wintry expanse of southeastern Pennsylvania in late December 1777. The soldiers, many of them ragged and shoeless, left bloody footprints in the snow, marking the grueling progress of this army of the American Revolution toward winter quarters at Valley Forge.

There was no shelter for the men when they reached the exposed, hilly landscape of that misnamed redoubt, actually a plateau Washington chose largely for its defensibility. (A nearby hollow had once been the site of a smithy, hence the designation.) Tents provided their only barrier against frost and wind. Their commander in chief insisted that he, too, would shelter in a tent until his troops were able to cut down trees and construct log huts for themselves.

Washington despaired for the fate of his army. "The whole of them," said his comrade-in-arms, Gen. John Sullivan, were "without watch coats, one half without blankets, and more than one third without shoes .. many of them without jackets ... and not a few without shirts." None had enough to eat; some had gone hungry for days. Exhausted and ill, men were deserting in great numbers, heading home to their families and farms. It was a dark moment for the Revolution and for Washington. From his makeshift headquarters, he wrote to warn Congress: "unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place .. this army must inevitably ... starve, dissolve or disperse."

His offer of service was accepted, and he reported to Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge, Pa., on 23rd of February. When he arrived at Valley Forge he was appalled by the condition of the army, his own words speak for themselves --"It would be an endless task to enumerate the abuses which nearly ruined the army."

There seemed to be little accountability for supplies, officers could not even sure of the number of men under their command. Equipment of all kinds was lacking, with soldiers without clothing or even muskets, worse still there was a complete lack of discipline.

Troops were even in the habit of coming and going as they pleased, those who living nearby walking away and return to their homes to attend to their farm chores . On the operational level, although they were good individual fighters, the American infantry's ignorance of the elementary principles of drill or manoeuvring often put them at a fatal disadvantage against their well-trained British/ Hanoverian opponents

Steuben immediately took control of this military chaos and set out to change it. Personally becoming a drill sergeant, he started teaching marching, marksmanship and battle tactics. He introduced group training, hand picking 100 men, training them and sending them out to train others. He put into practice camp sanitary methods and established common latrines, away from the tented areas, while tents themselves were erected in lines in a proper military fashion. Soon the camp began to have a ordered disciplined appearance which in turn no doubt effected the self esteem of Washington's troops.

All of this organisation, including the necessary orders, was handicapped by Von Steubens lack of English. However Nathaniel Greene and Alexander Hamilton were great admirers of Steuben's efforts and it was these two men who actually passed on his orders.

Impressed no doubt by the change beginning to come over his army, Washington recommended, to Congress, on 30th of April, 1778, that Von Steuben should be appointed Inspector General of the Army. Congress complied and in May 1778. Not all of Washington's Generals had the same degree of respect for what Steuben was accomplishing. Generals LaFayette, Lee and Mifflin felt that they were being interfered with in the training of troops under their command (This may even have been tinged with a little jealousy?), nevertheless, Steuben continued with his valuable task.

During this time Steuben wrote his training manual known as 'The Blue Book', more formally known as, "Regulations For The Order And Discipline Of The Troops". The book included detailed instructions for the discipline and conduct of officers and enlisted men, as well as organisation of units, and all related issues. Washington approved the book and printing commenced of three thousand copies ordered by Congress.

Baron von Steuben, the former Prussian army officer who came to this country during the Revolution and became the drillmaster of the Continental Army, at one point wrote back to a former colleague in the Prussian army, Baron von Gaudy, about these Americans whom he now found himself training. "[T]he genius of this nation," von Steuben held, "is not in the least to be compared with that of the Prussians, Austrians or French. You say to your soldier, ‘Do this, and he doeth it’; but I am obliged to say, ‘This is the reason why you ought to do that; and then he does it.’"

Steuben reminded me again of this Stephen Green classic:

Dread is for the weak; defiance is, perhaps, the American virtue.

And here's the statue: