He wrote many letters to members of Congress on this point, disclaiming all personal interest (for he had repeatedly declared that he would receive no compensation for his own services), but pleading earnestly for his companions in
* Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben, after leaving the Prussian army, where he was aid-decamp of Frederic the Great, entered the serviee of Prince Charles of Baden, under whom he held the rank of lieutenant general, and was also a canon of the Church. He was made grand marshal of the court of the Prinee of Hohenzollern-Heekingen, and by the Prinee Margrave, of Baden, was appointed knight of the order of Fidelity. The King of Sardinia made him brilliant offers, and the Emperor of Austria sought to secure his services. His income was nearly three thousand dollars a year. He left these offices, emoluments, and honors, and came to Ameriea to fight as a volunteer in the armies battling for freedom. He joined the Continental army at Valley Forge as a volunteer, and in that capacity (though holding the office of inspector general) was in the action on the field of Monmouth. He was engaged in various important services, wherein we shall hereafter meet him, and finally commanded in the trenches at Yorktown, where the last great battle of the Revolution was fought. At the close of the war, the State of New Jersey gave him a small farm, and the Legislature of New York presented him with 16,000 acres of wild land in Oneida eounty. The general government also granted him a pension of $2500. He built himself a log house at Steubenville, New York, gave a tenth part of his land to his aids (North, Popham, and Walker) and his servants, and parceled out the rest to twenty or thirty tenants. He resided in the country in summer, and in New York city in winter. He died of apoplexy or paralysis, at Steubenville, on the 28th of November, 1798, aged sixty-four years. Neither of his aids comforted his last moments. His neighbors buried him in his garden. Afterward, agreeably to his desire, he was wrapped in his cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried in a lonely spot in the woods, about a quarter of a mile above his log hut. His aid, Colonel Walker, inclosed the spot; and when a road was made to pass over his resting-plaee, his remains were removed, and buried in another grave, in the town of Steuben, about seven miles northwest of Trenton Falls. In 1826, a monument was erected over him by private subscription, with this brief inscription upon it: Major-general Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben. General North, ** another of his aids, who greatly loved the baron, caused a neat mural monument to be erected to his memory, upon the walls of the Reformed German Church, then situated in Nassau Street, between John Street and Maiden Lane, in New York city. When a Baptist society, under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Somers, subsequently commenced worshiping in that church, they courteously allowed the monument to be taken down and carried to the new church of the Germans in Forsyth Street. There I found it in separate pieces, lying among rubbish, in a small lumber-room of the church, disfigured and mutilated. I sketched its parts, and in the annexed figure give a representation of it as it originally appeared. The slab, of obelisk form, and the square frame, are of bluish, clouded marble; the square slab with the inscription, and the two urns, are of white marble. The lower urn has upon it a representation of the order of Fidelity (seen on the breast of the portrait on page 341), which Frederic the Great presented to the baron. The following is the inscription, from the pen of General North: "Sacred to the memory of Frederic William Augustus, Baron de Steuben, a German; Knight of the Order of Fidelity; Aid-de-camp of Frederic the Great, King of Prussia; Major General and Inspector General in the Revolutionary War; esteemed, respected, and supported by Washington. He gave military skill and discipline to the citizen soldiers who, fulfilling the decrees of Heaven, achieved the independence of the United States. The highly-polished manners of the baron were graced by the most noble feelings of the heart. His hand, open as day for melting charity, closed only in the strong grasp of death. This memorial is inscribed by an American, who had the honor to be his aid-de-camp, the happiness to be his friend. Ob. 1795."
* Thacher and others have left on record many examples of the excellent character of the Baron Steuben, among the attributes of which, kindness and generosity were the most conspicuous. He was always cheerful, and possessed ready wit. At Yorktown, a shell fell near him. To avoid its effects, he leaped into a trench, followed by General Wayne, who fell upon him. The baron, on perceiving that it was his brigadier, said, "I always knew you was a brave general, but I did not know you were so perfect in every point of duty; you cover your general's retreat in the best manner possible." At the house of the mother of Chancellor Livingston, the baron was introduced to a Miss Sheaf. "I am very happy," he said, "in the honor of being presented to you, mademoiselle, though I see it is at an infinite risk; I have from my youth been cautioned to guard myself against mischief.\ but I had no idea that her attractions were so powerful."
* This sketch is from a drawing made by the Rev. John Taylor, a missionary in the Mohawk and Black River countries in 1802, and published in the third volume of O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York. Of Steuben and his grave Mr. Taylor wrote: "He lies in a swamp, under a hemlock, with a bier standing over the grave, and a few rough boards nailed to some trees to keep the cattle off. Alas! what is man, that the great Baron Steuben should be suffered to lie in such a place, and without a decent monument!"
** Very little remains on record of the military life of General North during the Revolution, except the fact that he was Steuben's aid. When, in 1798, John Sloss Hobart resigned his seat in the Senate of The United States, Governor Jay appointed General North to succeed him. He was then a resident of Duanesburgh, New York, was a conspicuous Federalist, and had been twice speaker of the New York Assembly. General North passed the latter years of his life in New London, Connecticut, but died in the city of New York on the 4th of January, 1837.
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arms. His representations were so judicious and forcible, that, after much discussion and delay, Congress adopted a plan of half-pay for life, by a small majority. The vote was afterward reconsidered, and a compromise resolution was proposed.
