Von Steuben Headquarters
Pennsylvania
This stone house, built around seventeen seventy, may be the most consequential farmhouse in American military history. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge on February twenty-third, seventeen seventy-eight, a Prussian officer who had served under Frederick the Great. Washington appointed him temporary Inspector General and handed him the most daunting job in the army: teach ragged, exhausted men to march, maneuver, and fight in formation.
Von Steuben chose a model company of about one hundred twenty soldiers and drilled them daily on the parade ground, using a mix of French, German, and creative profanity. By spring, the lesson had spread through the entire encampment. The Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, the manual Von Steuben wrote the following winter, remained standard for decades.
The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in nineteen seventy-two.
