do you have a masterpost of information about or like recommendations to read more about von steuben? thanks!
HELLO
do you want a booklist
I’m slowly working my way through my inbox, and I saw this. Which is great because I REALLY need to update my Steuben booklist. So congratulations. This is going to replace @nothingfrompoland ‘s ask as my pinned post. Huzzah
okay, Livelaughlovelams recommendations on Von Steuben books as of 10/11/25, since the original one is awful. By the way, this will include how is sexuality is handled, even though that wasn’t the highlight of his life. Why? Because my original Steuben booklist focuses on that, and this is booklist 2.0! I’m also going to score for Du Ponceau mentions, because I want to. No one asked for that. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: this one is SO MUCH LONGER THAN THE ORIGINAL. I’m talking a lot today. And what I’m saying is unprofessional and unintelligible. This one is LONG and POINTLESS
(Scroll down all the way for a rant about the issues with pretty much all of these, and my overall yap notes. As well as honorable mentions.)
1. The Drillmaster of Valley Forge by Paul Lockhart
at this current time, this is my favorite. I didn’t do it justice last time. It’s sooo well written. I have 2 copies of this one. I carry a copy of it at ALL times, since it’s the best Steuben biography I own, and I can easily bring it out to inform people about Steuben… which I do daily. Since it was written by a military historian, it concentrates on the military aspect of Steuben’s life. This means very detailed America section, but everything about his early life and later life is quitee vague. Nothing Lockhart’s book says is directly wrong, but I sometimes feel like he could have added more minor things into it, like the doctor’s riot or something. || How is homosexuality handled? Eh…. For the most part, Lockhart denies it and puts it to the side. He suggests that Steuben could have been asexual or something, and that we’ll never know (true.). It also includes that weird sourceless anecdote about Steuben dropping a pretty woman’s portrait and feeling bad. For someone who doesn’t think Steuben was homosexual, it’s really… gay. In all honesty. Includes lots of lovely things that suggest homosexuality, and then hits you with “BUT HE PROBABLY WAS STRAIGHT, WE’LL NEVER KNOW!” twice in the book. Not the worst, though. || Du Ponceau representation? pretty solid! I like this amount! It’s a good balance! It has a lot more Du Ponceau than some other books, so if you aren’t into him (in correlation with Steuben) too much, might not be your favorite. And I understand that. It was a bit sketchy, like most colonial ambiguous relationships. But I LOVE the Du Ponceau content in this book, as an avid Du Ponceau appreciator.
2. The life of Frederick William Von Steuben by Friedrich Kapp
It's May of 2026, and I've read Kapp's biography. You can't hate this one, since it's kind of the blueprint of every Steuben biography ever. Pretty much every anecdote we have about Steuben's life is from this book. However, most of them are just a "source: trust me bro" type situation, since Kapp got the majority of his information through interviews with figures from Steuben's life, instead of written documents or easily citable sources. Because of this, many of the things in Kapp's biography are unverifiable, meaning a lot of the information about Steuben is unverifiable. I'm just gonna say that I read this one a while ago and can't find it in my messy room, so I'll update this post when I do find it, but from what I remember, it really shocked me with how good it was. I came into this one with relatively low expectations, but it was a great biography that I definitely recommend, however, NOT as anyone's singular source. The information in Kapp's biography is exclusively what was available in the mid 19th century, and it is outdated. This is a book I'd recommend reading if you already have an opinion of Von Steuben in your mind, and have done your own research beforehand, which is why a lot of the information in Washington's Gay General is inaccurate, since the book was written by people who are not experienced in history, and went solely off of Kapp's biography. Anyways, moving on to gay talk. Expect edits of this post later when I find the book, but as far as I remember, it doesn't call him a homosexual, or anything of the sort. Since this was written in the 1800's. And similar to how Lockhart is a military historian, Kapp is a German historian. This book is not about an American history figure, but in Kapp's eyes, a German historical figure. Just like how Lockhart was not writing his biography about a Prussian man in the American revolution, but about a military leader. These focused historians chose to expand on the aspect of Steuben's life that they were most comfortable writing about, and in turn, left out some of his personal life. But Kapp's biography still does a GREAT job at portraying Steuben as a person through many (unverifiable) anecdotes, which are placed into the book to give us an idea of Steuben's character. Since Steuben spent his life with male partners, the anecdotes of course have quite a bit of content that could be interpreted in a queer lens if it's read through one. Many are domestic interactions between Steuben, North, and Walker, which gives us some perspective on the three of them, considering that they are now regarded to have likely been romantic partners in some way. And lastly, Du Ponceau. Again, check your phone later for the updates, since I do not remember the Du Ponceau content. From what I remember, he was very underrepresented compared to Walker or North, which of course makes sense since the two of them were very obvious lovers to Von Steuben, at least in my eyes, whereas Du Ponceau was an ambiguous companion who very well could have just been an aide. Even though I "ship" Steuponceau, I will say for a fact that there is little confirmation of what the nature of their relationship was, and my personal "ships" shouldn't cloud mine or anybody's judgement of real historical figures. But Du Ponceau wasn't ignored either. He was just kind of sidelined. And I respect that. That's my boy, but I respect that. I felt like there could have been more of him, since I adore him as a historical figure, but there wasn't so little that I was mad. Overall, I loved Kapp's biography very much, but I'll say it again for the people in the back, TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!! Kapp's biography is a great, great read, and I would say that I learned more about Steuben than I ever thought was left to learn, but it isn't a "good" enough biography to be your only source of information, in the sense that it is outdated and hard to back up. In fact, Kapp's biography is what a lot of other biographies use as a source. So yeah. I liked this one. It's good.
3. General Von Steuben by John Palmer
Overall, I don’t remember much about this book, but I do remember I LOVED it, so it’s gotta be pretty good. First real Steuben biography I read. Pretty fond of it. I’ll also say it’s extremely hard to come across. I only read this one first because it existed in my library network’s (very ancient) catalog. But yeah, it’s pretty good. I don’t have much to say about it. It’s a really generalized, almost simple view on his life and everything he was doing. A little less detailed than Lockhart’s, if I remember correctly. I haven’t owned a copy of this one in a whileeee, so some of this might be wrong. But I like this one a lot! It’s very good! || Look, it’s a 20th century biography. I haven’t read it in a while, but from what I remember, it doesn’t handle the subject with all the grace in the world. I think the only mention was the p*dophilia rumor, which Palmer seemed to dislike (REASONABLY SO.). But It doesn’t focus on his personal life too much at all, so there isn’t much to base it on. I believe homosexuality mentions besides that one were about “unsavory conduct”. But I’ll also say that Steuben’s sexuality was NOT the highlight of his life! He was an American hero who happened to be gay, NOT a gay American hero! So all is fine. || Du Ponceau mentions… I’m going to be very honest with you all, I think the smartest, least harmful thing I could do as a creator is reread the book before sharing confident information on it. So expect updates to this post! But I’m pretty sure Du Ponceau was mentioned in a professional matter, not a “companion” way. Which is FINE! Besides a few anecdotes, Du Ponceau is only really mentioned as Steuben’s secretary, or when he does stuff as Steuben’s secretary. Which is understandable. He’s just a silly little lad.
4. Washington’s Gay General by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings.
(sighs dramatically). I. I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a really good read, but a lot of information is… iffy. I’m INCREDIBLY upset with minor things, like Nathan Fry being listed as a slave. I love him and that hurt. It is prefaced by saying “we’re not historians we’re just gay and so was this guy”, so I can’t hate it. It gives you what it promised. You know what I REALLY wish it had? A bibliography. A lot of stuff said seems hella interesting, but we don’t know where you’re getting this from besides Kapp’s biography… which also lacks a bibliography, I’ve been told? I don’t mean this in a judging way. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book, even if I was skeptical at times. There’s a lot I honestly want sources for, so I can read more about some things. Really. The book also goes to the author’s personal life a lot. Which is fair. Since it’s partially about relating to Steuben. And the end mentions a bunch of other queer historical figures (D’EON MENTION TOO HUZZAHHHH). || The.. the whole book concentrates on homosexuality. It’s somewhat about homosexuality. I would say it seems objectifying at times, but it’s by a gay male author. (I think). You can’t really be objectifying towards yourself. Honestly, the book’s main thing is that Steuben’s gay. Though I don’t really like how simplified it is at times, it’s EXACTLY what we signed up for, and it isn’t a bad biography. It gives a pretty standard professional view, too. I hope I’m not making you think it ONLY talks about his personal life, because that isn’t true. It is a great book, despite not being for the academics. || Du Ponceau in this one is… eh. Based off reviews, I didn’t think he’d be mentioned at all! I was in for a wonderful surprise. I genuinely shrieked when I saw a whole 3 pages dedicated to him. I like that it’s basically like like ‘yeah, they were probably loving and consensual, but this is still sketchy.’ (say it with me people, it’s the 18TH CENTURY). This book is quite confident in Steuponceau being canon. “isn’t that your whole brand??” Yeah pretty much, but as stated earlier, we’ll never really know. Their relationship was very ambiguous. I feel like the Du Ponceau depictions are really cherry-picked, though. It’s very particular about what’s kept in and what’s not. I mean, come on! If we’re gonna love on Du Ponceau this much, you need to include the “the Baron left me with tears in his eyes” thing! You can just forget about him halfway through the book! go all the way! But in all seriousness, I completely understand why they did this, and I think it was a good decision. If Du Ponceau was focused on any more, he’d be the secondary lead, and the main love interest. It leaves some space to talk about Walker and North (eugh), which I find very professional and necessary. They didn’t really want to make Du Ponceau too important, and I respect that. It would feel like they were trying to take my spot as the #1 Steuponceau fan if he was focused on any more. So I get it! I respect this!
It’s like Hamilton. Nice art, NOT history.
AND NOW (drumroll please) HONORABLE MENTIONS.
I am currently reading Cronau’s biography now, which shall be added soon, but honestly it’s very short and concise and doesn’t have any ne3 information so we’ll d44.
Du Ponceau’s autobiography. I CAN’T RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH. As the.. (probably #3-ish? Let me know..) Du Ponceau fan, I highly recommend this one. We wouldn’t know anything about Du Ponceau if he didn’t give in and write this. But let’s stay on topic. Pretty much same as my original post. It’s obviously Du Ponceau’s own memoirs, but Steuben is nonetheless prominent. Huzzah.
Uhhh I’m also reading one in German right now but I forgot the author name. Sorry. I’ll add it when I get my stuff together.
NOTES:
Hello hello! I’ll start off by saying that EVERYTHING in this post is from memory. I don’t have the books open right next to me. If anything’s wrong, that’s on me and my temporal lobe. But now, general stuff.
I’ll just say it. All of these books are biased. Lockhart and Palmer try their absolute best to avoid homosexuality, and your third option does the opposite. But also, Von Steuben was more than homosexual. He was a military genius and a leader in American history. So.
Okay that’s all the notes I have.
Thank you so much for reading this far!! And to the actual asker, PLEASE enjoy this list. Feel free to ask me ANYTHING about this guy. The reason I don’t have a master post about him is that, as seen in this post, I’m a huge yapper. If we just ask me for all the information, it’ll be pages long. I AM working on a simplified master post about him, though! But that’s not here yet. I’m busy with a lot of projects right now. I’d recommend asking me specifics.
And uh.
Yes guys. I’m alive. I’m back… maybe. This ask is OLD. I’ve said it before, but I’m absolutely awful at responding to things, and I know that. If you’ve contacted me in the past, I want to formally apologize. I don’t mean to come off as rude or ghost people. It’s not you, it’s everyone. I know that’s awful. I’m just really bad at responding to things. I’m working on getting to you soon. I’m genuinely terrible at responding to things. I think I’ve accidentally ghosted the American Philosophical Society before… yikes… let me go fix that before it’s too late..
But uh. I LOVE YOU GUYS. AND. IF YOU GUYS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT VON STEUBEN… heh… that just so happens to be my only purpose in life… HUZZAH
