12 



HISTOEY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



5th of May, appointed him inspector-general of the army, 

 with the rank of major-general. 



The department of inspection was now organized on a 

 permanent basis. Two ranks of inspectors were appointed. 

 The lowest were charged with the inspection of brigades, 

 and were chosen by the field-officers of the body to which 

 they belonged. Over these were placed, as sub-inspectors, 

 five other officers, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

 Among these were two French gentlemen, Ternant and 

 Fleury, whose knowledge of both French and English made 

 them necessary assistants of Baron Steuben. The duty of 

 the inspectors was to superintend the exercise and discipline 

 of the troops, and to assist in the execution of all field 

 manoeuvres, especially in time of action. They reviewed 

 and inspected the number and condition of the men, and 

 the state of the arms and accoutrements, and reported to 

 the commander-in-chief any loss or damage, and by what 

 means it had occurred. The various means for the accom- 

 plishment of this very essential part of the service were 

 projected and matured with great labor by Steuben himself, 

 and they were productive of the happiest results. Much 

 unnecessary expense was avoided, and habits of order and 

 carefulness introduced throughout the army. 



Baron Steuben, while engaged in the active duties of his 

 office as inspector-general of the army, produced the first 

 military manual or book of tactics and discipline ever pub- 

 lished in this country. This book was undertaken in the 

 autumn of 1778, to supply a demand which at that period 

 became an urgent necessity. Hitherto the system intro- 

 duced by the baron had been extended to the troops in 

 separate and remote sections of the country by means of 

 officers dispatched for the purpose, who had previously 

 learned and practiced the rules under the eye of Steuben 

 himself Ternant had been sent upon this errand to the 

 Southern army, and Neuville to the department in com- 

 mand of Gates. But differences of practice still existed, 

 which were perplexing when large bodies of troops were 

 brought together, and in order to insure moi'e perfect har- 

 mony it was deemed advisable that a manual should be 

 prepared and printed for distribution among the proper 

 officers. 



Baron Steuben engaged in the work at the request of 

 Washington and the board of war. The difficulties in the 

 way of executing the project were great. From his im- 

 perfect acquaintance with the English language the work 

 was originally composed in French, and the manuscript 

 then translated into English by his aides, or persons con- 

 nected with the war department, who were not well ac- 

 quainted with military phrases and duties. No treatise on 

 military science could be obtained to serve as a basis for 

 the work. Everything had to be drawn from the baron's 

 recollections of the Prussian system, and then modified to 

 suit the peculiar condition of the American troops. 



It is no small praise of a work executed under such cir- 

 cumstances that it was inj mediately approved by Wash in i^- 

 ton, relied upon for direction during the remainder of the 

 war, and continued to be in use as the only authority for 

 disciplining the militia of the several States for nearly half 

 a century. For this purpose the work was republished in 

 many of the States. The completed manuscript was sub- 



mitted to the perusal of Washington Feb. 26, 1779. Con- 

 gress adopted it by a resolution dated on the 29th of March. 

 Col. Pickering, who superintended the passage of the work 

 through the press, wrote to Steuben announcing its publi- 

 cation on the 19th of June. 



The peculiar duties of Steuben during the war required 

 his services in different parts of the country. In August, 

 1779, he left the main army on a visit to Providence, in 

 order to introduce among the troops under Gen. Gates the 

 rules which had been adopted in the main body. He re- 

 mained in Providence but a short time, being ordered to 

 Boston to receive and accompany to headquarters the Che- 

 valier de la Luzerne, who had just landed as minister from 

 France to Consfress. 



Steuben, although ardently desiring to take charge of a 

 separate command and to engage in more active service, re- 

 mained in the discharge of the duties of his office as in- 

 spector-general until the autumn of 1780. Circumstances 

 then occurred which were destined soon to gratify his long- 

 cherished wish. The defeat of Gen. Gates at Camden, on 

 the 16th of August, had entirely exposed the southern 

 country to the operations of the army under Cornwallis. 

 In October, Gen. Greene was appointed to the command of 

 the South, with all the troops raised in the Southern States 

 destined for his support. Baron Steuben was ordered to 

 accompany him, to aid in recruiting and disciplining the 

 raw troops which were to form the bulk of his army. 



On arriving at Richmond, about the middle of November, 

 Gen. Greene decided that Virginia could only be defended 

 from the Carolinas : that unless the British forces in those 

 States could be kept actively engaged there, the whole 

 country up the Potomac must fall into their power. There- 

 fore he proceeded to his chosen field of operations, leaving 

 Steuben in command in Virginia, with instructions to re- 

 cruit and discipline troops as rapidly as possible, and for- 

 ward them, together with stores and provisions, to his 

 support in North Carolina. 



An odious task was thus imposed upon Steuben ; for the 

 people of Virginia, in the exposed condition of their own 

 State, with Portsmouth still occupied by the British Gen. 

 Leslie, would be unwilling to surrender so large a portion 

 of their scanty resources to augment an army whose opera- 

 tions at best afforded them but a doubtful protection. 



Gen. Greene, in a letter, laid his plans before Gov. Jeffer- 

 son, recommended the baron in strong terms, and invoked 

 for him the aid and co-operation of the State executive. 



The quota of troops fixed by Congress to complete the 

 Virginia line amounted to nearly six thousand. The As- 

 sembly, under the circumstances, with apparent reluctance, 

 and after much debate, voted to raise three thousand by a 

 draft, which was appointed to be held on the 10th of Feb- 

 ruary, 1781. All the troops Steuben had been able to 

 send to Gen. Greene up to this time was a force of about 

 four hundred (out of a destitute squad of nine hundred, 

 who had been left at liberty by the withdrawal of Leslie 

 from Portsmouth, on the 24th of November), for whom 

 only, with great labor, he could find equipments. The 

 others had been ordered to Chesterfield Court-House, and 

 the baron had made strenuous exertions to procure for 

 them the necessary articles of equipment. 



