of seventeen, entering the army of the as adjutant general to the command of great Frederick as a cadet. He rose, General von Hulsen, and shared with through subordinate degrees, to be first that officer the defeat of Frederick at lieutenant, in 1755. Throughout the Kunersdorf. He was wounded in that Seven Years' War which followed, engagement so disastrous to the Pruswhich was also training up, on the sian arms. There is little known of other side of the Atlantic, a school of his movements in the army for the next soldiers for the American Revolution, two years. In 1761 we find him adju he was in constant service. Attached tant of General Knobloch, moving to the command of Marshal Schwerin, with the force of General Platen in his he was with that officer in his invasion successful razzia into Poland, his father, of Bohemia, in 1757, and was wounded the engineer of Custrin, facilitating the in the engagement with the Austrian return of the expedition by throwing army at the battle of Prague. In the a bridge for their passage over the subsequent great battle of that year, at Wartha, at the junction of which river Rosbach, when the combined French with the Oder he was stationed. and Germans were met by Frederick in person and gallantly defeated, the regiment of Steuben was in the van, sharing in the honors of that memorable day.

After this he was sent with the army into Pomerania, to the relief of the city of Colberg, then threatened by the Russians, who were in great force in the province. He was at Treptow, in the vicinity, guarding the supplies, when that town was besieged by a large force, and General Knobloch, who was in command, was compelled to surrender. The articles of capitulation were negotiated by Steuben. Becom ing thus a prisoner of war, he was sent with the other officers to St. Petersburg, a detention of no long duration, and which proved rather an advantage to the Prussian cause, as the captives were enabled to strengthen the disposition to an alliance with Frederick, which then began to be entertained at the Russian court. The new sovereign, Peter III., it is said, was desirous that Steuben should enter his service; but this he declined in favor of a return to Prussia. It is to the service rendered Frederick, in Russia, by these officers,

In the following year, without sacrificing his claims to promotion in his regiment, he entered as adjutant general the free corps of General von Mayr, a bold partisan officer of those days who carried out the designs of Frederick in detached enterprises of great courage and resolution, seizing the supplies of their cities and scouring the country of the enemy. It was in this irregular but effective warfare of a band of volunteers that Steuben, in a year's active campaigning, learnt a lesson of self-reliance, and the ready use of resources in the field, which prepared him for his subsequent services in the not altogether dissimilar military operations in America. On the death of the redoubtable Von Mayr, in the beginning of 1759, Steuben returned to the regular army. He was attached says Mr. Kapp, "that Steuben prob

ably owed his advancement to the rank paigner, compared with the hardships of captain, and his appointment as of the tented field. There was proaid-de-camp on the personal staff of the bably enough rigor in its exactions to king, in whose suite, in 1762, he took suit the spirit of discipline of a soldier part in the celebrated siege of Schweid- accustomed to command; and a better nitz, the surrender of which was the opportunity there was not, in the wide brilliant conclusion of the military world, to fight over the battles of old operations of the Seven Years' War." Fritz, in which the chamberlain had This struggle being now ended, been engaged. He might, however, Steuben received a special mark of the have grown rusty, if he had been conconfidence of the great Frederick, in fined altogether within the palace prebeing admitted within that select cir- cincts; but he was spared this fate by cle of young officers-Steuben was but the opportunity which came, in the thirty at the time of the treaties of course of his duties, of accompanying Paris and Hubertsburg-to whom the the prince on his travels, which exking was pleased to give instructions tended through the other courts of Gerin the art of war. A still more con- many, and even to France. This pleas vincing test of that frugal monarch's ing mode of life was proof against satisfaction lies in the fact that he con- various tenders of new military employferred upon this favorite officer a lay ments from the King of Sardinia and benefice of the religious chapter of the Emperor of Germany, and might Havelsburg, of the annual value of four have been indefinitely prolonged had hundred thalers. Not long after this, not difficulties arisen in the little court for some reason not sufficiently under- in which the baron was imbedded, stood, Steuben quitted the Prussian growing out of a subject which, in a service. It is said that he feigned general way, might be the last thought sickness for the purpose of obtaining of to disturb the peace of an old camhis discharge, which he had some diffi-paigner, who had lived in the midst of culty in procuring. When his release battles from his cradle. This new vexwas achieved, he entered into the ser- ation grew out of the subject of reli vice of one of the inferior potentates of gion. Steuben, in accordance with his Germany, the Prince of Hohenzollern family traditions, was an earnest ProHechingen, to whom he had been in testant, and the religion of Hohenzol troduced at the springs of Wildbad, in lern Hechingen was Catholic. The Suabia, in whose miniature court he priests, in fact, made the little court too. discharged the ceremonial duties of hot to hold him, and he prudently regrand marshal for ten years. He ob- tired while the storm was yet rising. tained this favor with the recommen- Continuing to enjoy the respect of the dation of the Princess of Wurtemberg Prince, he withdrew to another friendly and the king's brother, Prince Henry haven at Carlsruhe, the court of the of Prussia. The occupation must have Margrave of Baden, who had previ been a luxurious one for an old cam-ously honored him with the cross of

military service was the forte of such a culty; but Franklin shrunk at once

disciplinarian as his guest. Let him go to the spot, serve the good. cause, and reap its honors and rewards. In furtherance of this matter, he was referred to the Spanish minister, the Count de Aranda, and the Prince de Montbarey, one of the officers of the government.

in

to Versailles, where the Spanish ambassador was introduced; Beaumarchais tendered a handsome advance, and the Baron, so far yielded as to say he would consider the matter while he was in Germany. Thither he accordingly pro ceeded, and, as it happened, fell in with

from the mention of pecuniary respon sibilities and obligations; nor, mindful.of previous embarrassments, would he pledge himself to any contract whatever. He left no doubt on the mind of his visitor regarding his views on this matter; the Baron thought him not only positive but rude, and resolved The scheme does not appear to have at once to abandon the idea, and go struck Steuben very vividly at the out- back to his friends in the German set; America was distant, and the peo- | Principalities. The Count St. Germain ple there spoke English, an unknown opposed his resolution, and endeavored tongue to him; Carlsruhe was near and to soften the matter by an invitation comfortable, and the courtiers pattered very familiar German. Why exchange assured ease for an uncertainty in the wilderness? To some minds the question would have been conclusive, but the proposition had a certain fascination, notwithstanding the doubts which hedged it in, to a soldier of fortune the Prince Louis William of Baden, like Steuben a man, we should think, always better adapted to camps than courts. He was introduced to M. de Beaumarchais, the versatile author of "Figaro," then managing a great deal of contraband aid to the United States, in a disguised mercantile capacity; and M. de Beaumarchais introduced him to Mr. Silas Deane, the American Commissioner, and Mr. Deane carried him to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the head of the commission at Passy. The Baron by this time was in a very dangerous way. A characteristic incident, how ever, of his interview with Franklin, came very near putting an end to the negotiation. Steuben touched upon the delicate preliminary question of funds. He would need advances. Deane said there would be no diffi

who was in the service of Holland, and who encouraged the trip to America. St. Germain was still urgent, and the Baron formed his resolution to adventure all his military experience and personal fortunes in the service of the struggling republic. He settled that supply of his purse, the canonry at Havelsburg, upon his nephew, and set out for Paris. There he came to an understanding with the ministers, who knew the temper of the American army and people, and adopted the conclusion to present himself to the army of Washington, as a volunteer, in reliance upon his merits, without previous stipulation either as regards rank or compensation. Previous to his depar ture, he had an interview with the Count de Vergennes, the minister of

cause, in thus sweeping up his various claims to attention under one compre hensive generalization. That this was his motive is evidenced by a letter to Alexander Hamilton, when Secretary of the Treasury, some time after the war was ended, when his claims were under adjustment. "No person," sir," he writes, "is better informed than

foreign affairs. Finally, armed with letters of introduction from Franklin to Washington, Samuel Adams, Presisident Laurens, Robert Morris, and other magnates in America, he sailed from Marseilles on the 26th September, 1777, on board of the twenty-four gun ship "l'Heureux," called for the voyage "le Flamand." Steuben was entered on the ship's books as "Frank." Some yourself, how difficult it was, at that secrecy was necessary in the proceed- time, to introduce a foreigner into your ing, to guard against British cruisers. army, even without any condition whatThe passage was long, and diversified ever. If, however, I should be charged by more than the ordinary perils of a with having made use of illicit stratasea voyage. A violent gale in the gems to gain admision into the service Mediterranean, another off the coast of of the United States, I am sure the Nova Scotia; the vessel twice on fire, army will acquit me, and, I flatter mywith a huge quantity of gunpowder on self, so also will the citizens of this board, among the stores consigned by republic in general." Mr. Kapp, in his Beaumarchais to the patriots; and as comment on this concession, refers the if these terrors were not sufficient, the stratagem to the Baron's assertion, that passengers were called upon to repress he had been general in the service of a dangerous mutiny of the crew. After the Margrave of Baden, adding, "there two months tossing on the deep, the was not a member of Congress that ship entered the harbor of Portsmouth, ever heard of a Margraviate of Baden. New Hampshire, on the first of De- The more imposing title of lieutenant cember. general secured to Steuben the right place in the American army. Even Franklin, who lived then in Paris, confounded Steuben's being aid-de-camp to Frederick II., with the fictitious rank given to him by the French diplomacy. In the United States, from his arrival to the present day, he is usually called a Prussian lieutenant general. So much, however, is certain, that if Steuben had been a general in Europe, his position would have been so ele vated, that he would never have crossed the Atlantic."

The General, for thus it had been suggested in Paris by the French ministers that Steuben, to give greater glory to his mission, should call himself, made the most of his landing. It was a pious fraud to assume the title of a general officer, which he had never reached in the Old World, his highest rank being that of captain and aid-decamp to Frederick; but he undoubtedly thought that he had fully earned it, and forewarned of the punctilio of the American army on the subject of rank and the jealousy of foreigners, he had no hesitation to serve a good

In addition to this formidable rank, Steuben presented himself to the Ameri