* * * * *
=_185._= BARON STEUBEN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY.
The committee having made their report, the baron's proffered services
were accepted with a vote of thanks for his disinterestedness, and he
was ordered to join the army of Valley Forge. That army, in its ragged
condition and squalid quarters, presented a sorry aspect to a strict
disciplinarian from Germany, accustomed to the order and appointments
of European camps; and the baron often declared, that under such
circumstances no army in Europe could be kept together for a single
month. The liberal mind of Steuben, however, made every allowance; and
Washington soon found in him a consummate soldier, free from pedantry or
pretension.
* * * * *
For a time, there was nothing but drills throughout the camp, then
gradually came evolutions of every kind. The officers were schooled as
well as the men. The troops, says a person who was present in the camp,
were paraded in a single line with shouldered arms; every officer in his
place. The baron passed in front, then took the musket of each soldier
in hand, to see whether it was clean and well polished, and examined
whether the men's accoutrements were in good order.
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