Frederick William Von Steuben and the American Revolution; Aide to Washington and Inspector General of the Army - neues Buch

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. STEUBEN AND BEAUMARCHAIS. Germain's Plans Disclosed ? Meeting of Steuben and Beau- marchais ? Former Concludes to Go to America, the latter to Furnish Funds ? Beaumarchais Subsequently Faces Bankruptcy and Death ? Long Controversy With Congress. We now return to Baron Steuben, who, as we have seen, had arrived in Paris on May 2d, 1777, where a private rendezvous was appointed by Count St. Germain, for what purpose Steuben could not conceive. A few days after he was conducted by Baron De Pagenstecher, Colonel of the Legion Conde, to Germain's Cabinet or private room, where the Count after congratulations, spread out a map of America with the declaration, "Here is your field of battle. Here is a republic which you must serve You are the very man she needs at this moment If you succeed your fortune is made, and you will acquire more glory than you could hope for in Europe for many years to come." Germain discoursed for sometime on the American situation, the resources of the country, the assurance of aid from France and Spain, and intimated the prospect of an open alliance between the Bourbon rulers of these two countries and the insurgents. The present needs of the Americans wer? shown to be tHat theirarrny hacT no permanentformation, the enlistmnts2wgrefor'short pe- througnIack of proper was tremendous (as Washington had frequently pointed out) ImdlKaT among those officers who had already sailed for America there was none specially qualified "lo take up this wortc! In short unless there was reform inthis direction neither their own resources nor help from friends in Europe would enable the Americans to continue their resistance to a successful end. To all this and much more the Count added: "You perceive now why I wished you not to appear at Versailles; ...