That winter encampment at Valley Forge was one of the lowest points. The historian Paul Lockhart describes the sorry state of Washington’s men in his book “The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army”:

“Heavy snow, followed by rain, followed by severe cold and ice — these made transportation all but impossible, impeding the already minimal flow of food, clothing, and firewood into camp. The lack of horses made the situation even worse; hundreds of horses would die as a result of lack of fodder. The Continentals were fast becoming, in the words of one sympathetic congressional delegate, ‘the skeleton of an army,’ half-naked and underfed.”

Most American schoolchildren know what happened next. A minor miracle occurs when a Prussian soldier, Baron de Steuben, arrives in camp and begins drilling the troops. He brings a sense of discipline and good humor to men who had been suffering all manner of deprivation.

Lockhart, professor of history at Wright State University, has been steeped in the history of that era most of his life.

“I grew up in the mid-Hudson Valley in New York state surrounded by Revolutionary War sites,” he said, which fed a passion for European and military history.

Baron de Steuben was a product of one the greatest European military organizations, the Prussian Army. He was on the fast track to a brilliant career as a Prussian officer when something went terribly wrong. As de Steuben struggled to revive his career, he met Benjamin Franklin in Paris. After some gross exaggerations of his credentials, the Barone was placed on a ship and set sail for America and a date with history.

On Feb. 24, 1778, he arrived at Valley Forge, where he was met by George Washington. Lockhart shows how this rotund little Prussian provides comic relief at Valley Forge with theatrical displays of bad temper and swearing.

The soldiers loved him. He was a real morale booster.

In the spring when British troops met Washington’s forces for the first time since de Steuben’s training, they were amazed to find newly trained soldiers drilled Prussian-style.

The Baron is most celebrated for being the drillmaster who brought spirit and discipline to soldiers sorely lacking both, but he also helped create a standing army after the war as well as the military academy at West Point.

When the Baron first arrived in America he met some French officers who had failed to find opportunities to fight on the American side. De Steuben took on these officers and kept them from returning to France. Lockhart points out that one of these men was Pierre Charles L’Enfant.