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veterantreasurer · 7 years

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“We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope!” -Steuben

The words come as a surprise from the man’s lips. Alexander had gotten to know the Barron fairly well in that last few months working as his translator. A gaudy mix of French and German often spilled from his lips, but Hamilton was never frisked by the crudeness of his humor. Often times he’d found himself censoring the man, knew John did as well. For it was needed. But on occasion, the Barron would make sense of his words, and wisdom would shine through, giving true reason to his status and rank above the aide de camp. His lips purse at the words, and Alexander rolled his reply around upon his tongue a moment before he shook his head. The gravity of the situation not on the other’s shoulders, for it was very few whom bore that particular weight upon them. The reality of the war that they had a very slim chance of winning. Slimmer by the day, just like the men who fought tirelessly into their death beds. The body count was high, the ration count pitiful, and Alexander had exhausted himself with desperate pleas to a congress that had no understanding of fiscal relations. For most were about as familiar with running a government as treating a man beneath their status with dignity.

“Look around, do you see hope Monsieur?”

#ofnimiety #screams bc barron von steuben #Time Period: The War #probs thinking like 1777?#answered

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sonofhistory · 7 years

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was barron von steuben gay? a while ago someone told me he was and he was kicked out of the army because of it

Here, I made a presentation that includes this. But yes! He was gay!

Baron von Steuben was one of the first cases of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell."

Benjamin Franklin learned of a "brilliant Prussian” military genius, Lt. Gen. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who had a string of successes across Germanic Europe. There was a problem- he’d been asked to depart many of those states and countries because of his “affections for members of his own sex,”.

Then in 1777 von Steuben literally escaped imprisonment in what is now Germany and traveled to Paris. There, Franklin was interviewing candidates to assist Washington back in the colonies when his fellow Colonial representative Silas Deane brought von Steuben to his residence for an interview.

During the process, Franklin discovered von Steuben’s reputation for having “affections” with males and the issue became pressing, as members of the French clergy demanded the French court, as in other countries, take action against this sodomite, whom they considered a pedophile.

Those allegations were fueled by von Steuben’s close ties to Prince Henry and Frederick the Great, also “widely rumored to be homosexual.”

Franklin decided von Steuben’s expertise was more important to the colonies than his sexuality. Along with Franklin and Deane, and personal friends of the baron: Pierre Beaumarchais, author of the “Figaro” plays and an arms dealer who supplied arms for the ship von Steuben eventually sailed on, and Claude Louis, Comte de Saint-Germain, the minister of war under Louis XVI. What the letter didn’t mention was that he was about to be arrested and appear before judges in France.

“It has come to me from different sources that M. de Steuben is accused of having taken familiarities with young boys, which the laws forbid and punish severely. I have even been informed that that is the reason why M. de Steuben was obliged to leave Hechingen and that the clergy of your country intend to prosecute him by law as soon as he may establish himself anywhere.”

Washington rewarded von Steuben with a house at Valley Forge, which he shared with his aide-de-camps Capt. William North and Gen. Benjamin Walker. Walker lived with him through the remainder of his life, and von Steuben, who neither married nor denied any of the allegations of homosexuality, left his estate to North and Walker. His last will and testament has been described as a love letter to Walk and has been purported to describe their “extraordinarily intense emotional relationship,”.

Adding to that were the constant rumors about his sexuality, which by 1790, reached one of the revolution’s first families, the Adamses of Massachusetts.

Charles, the son of John and Abigail Adams- was what today would be called the black sheep of the family. His biggest problem was alcoholism but, as revealed in letters among the various members of the family, the Adamses had other concerns.

“There are references to [Charles’] alleged proclivity for consorting with men whom his parents regarded as unsavory.” One of these men was von Steuben. Charles had become infatuated with and adored Von Steuben. It is clear from the family letters that the Adamses were concerned about a relationship between Charles and the baron. Von Steuben’s sexuality was an open secret, one that he himself never challenged, other than to ask Washington to defend his moral character. But John Mulligan another one of Baron von Steuben’s “boys” was extremely close with Charles.

It was von Steuben, a gay man, who played a giant role in not only the creation of American military, but the idea of military academies, a standing Army and even veterans organizations. As said by many: if George Washington was the father of the nation, then von Steuben, a gay man, was the father of the United States military.

#Flood Pressles box #Sincerely Anonymous #Baron von Steuben

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