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FRIEDRICH VON STEUBEN

Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben (Baron von Steuben) was a German mercenary. He was born in 1730 at Magdeburg and died in 1794. He saw service during the Seven Years' War, and in 1778 approached the American colonists to fight for them against the British during the American War of Independence. He was hired as instructor-general and given the task of reorganising the colonial volunteers. Subsequently he received a command in the field and took a prominent part in the reduction of Yorktown in 1780. He was rewarded with a pension and a grant of land near Utica, New York which he named Steuben township and lived at until his death.
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