“A terrific biography….The dramatic story of how the American army that beat the British was forged has never been better told than in this remarkable book.”
—Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of Team of Rivals

 

The true story of the Baron de Steuben and the making of the American Army, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge is the first biography in half a century of the immigrant Prussian soldier who molded George Washington’s ragged, demoralized troops into the fighting force that eventually triumphed in America’s War of Independence. Praised by renowned historian Thomas Fleming as “an important book for anyone interested in the American Revolution,” The Drillmaster of Valley Forge rights a historical wrong by finally giving a forgotten hero his well-deserved due.

A failure in midlife, the Baron de Steuben uprooted himself from his native Europe to seek one last chance at glory and fame in the New World. Steeped in the traditions of the Prussian army of Frederick the Great—the most ruthlessly effective in Europe—he taught the demoralized soldiers of the Continental Army how to fight like Europeans. His guiding hand shaped the fighting force that triumphed over the British at Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. But his influence did not end with the Revolution. Steuben was instrumental in creating West Point and in writing the first official regulations of the American army, and his principles have guided the American armed forces to this day.

In The Drillmaster at Valley Forge, Paul Lockhart tells the remarkable story of an extraordinary man—bringing to flesh and blood life the hitherto little-known figure whose image has long been part of the iconography of our Revolutionary heritage.

"Lockhart writes a lively, incisive biography that exposes the inner workings of the Baron's mind and highlights the critical role that he played in winning the Revolutionary War."