Frederick William Baron von Steuben (1730–1794)
Autore di Baron Von Steuben's Revolutionary War Drill Manual
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: Painting by Ralph Earl (Wikimedia Commons)
Opere di Frederick William Baron von Steuben
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1730-09-17
- Data di morte
- 1794-11-28
- Luogo di sepoltura
- Steuben Memorial Historical Site, New York, USA
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- Prussia (birth)
USA - Luogo di nascita
- Magdeburg, Duchy of Magdeburg
- Luogo di morte
- Utica, New York, USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Magdeburg, Prussia
Berlin, Prussia
New York, New York, USA
Remsen, New York, USA - Attività lavorative
- soldier (Prussian Army)
chamberlain (Court Chamberlain|Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen)
military officer (United States Army|major general)
farmer
Inspector General of the United States Army
Utenti
Recensioni
Statistiche
- Opere
- 5
- Utenti
- 139
- Popolarità
- #147,351
- Voto
- 2.6
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 5
Von Steuben was an interesting character; he never got past the rank of captain in Prussian service, his baronial title is highly dubious, and he fled Europe to avoid creditors. Ironically, much of this turned out to be an advantage; you’re probably much better off with a captain than a general if you want to drill troops, and he couldn’t very well quit in the middle and go home to a debtor’s prison or worse when things got rough. Von Steuben’s method was to set up a model drill company and write a drill manual (in French). Again with some irony the drill company turned out to be extremely popular with the supposedly undisciplined colonials and its demonstration tours of military encampments were always well attended and imitated.
The manual itself is probably best used with some military miniatures, or at least paper counters, that you can push around to duplicate the maneuvers. The procedure for retreating a column through a narrow defile (where the whole column won’t fit at once and you need cover against pursuit) is particularly complicated. It also might be interesting to go through the loading and firing procedure for a flintlock musket - especially in your front yard; you’re probably unpopular with the neighbors anyway.
This is a photographic reprint of the original 1794 edition, which can make it a little difficult to read sometimes. As was common at the time, the typeface has a letter “s” that looks like an “f” except at the end of a word, this makes reading fome fentences challenging.
Worth three stars on general principles, and four if you’re a military history buff.… (altro)