Drillmaster von Steuben                                 Edwin Abbey, artist

Historians agree that it was the leadership and character of Gen. George Washington that held the Continental Army together throughout the American Revolution. He is, by popular acclaim, the architect of victory over the British.

But when the Continental Army staggered into its winter camp at Valley Forge in December 1777, they were a defeated, disorganized unit. Yet they marched out of Valley Forge in the spring of 1778 a well-disciplined fighting machine that eventually brought the British to their knees at Yorktown.

The key person in this transformation was Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.

-Joseph S. Kennedy, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Dec. 14, 2001