I was listening to the soundtrack after watching the musical on Disney+ last weekend, and when listening to "Guns and Ships" I realized that they missed an opportunity to also include another important immigrant, von Steuben.
Von Steuben was a former Prussian (German) officer who arrived in Valley Forge with an extravagant backstory invented by Benjamin Franklin and an equally extravagant name. He transformed the small pox ridden camp into a proper fort, and trained the troops how to effectively use muskets and bayonets in the modern and advanced Prussian tactics. Hamilton served as one von Steuben's personal translators as he could only speak German and French. Hamilton was entranced by this slightly obese man who during the day would curse at his troops in German and French for getting a drill wrong and would get 'let's go streaking drunk' with his fellow officers at night. Historians also believe that von Steuben was somewhat openly gay due to the high number of scandals and rumors he created in Prussia and in the US after the war.
I understand why they would not include him in the musical. There was already a large cast, he could not speak English, and the role of the foreign general who changed the course of the war was already taken by Lafayette. But it is unfortunate that he was left out of the musical as he is often left out of the historical narrative due to not conforming to the idealized image of the founding fathers due to his gayness and German-ness.
He was a homosexual, military officer in the Prussian army who was disgraced and forced to leave because of his sexual preferences. He moved to a growing nation across the Atlantic, where he was appointed Major General by George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He is credited with disciplining and training the rag tag group of American soldiers who were fighting for freedom and equality. He introduced several important, new drills, a disciplinary tradition, and more sanitary camps to avoid unnecessary small pox breakouts. His leadership was a critical asset to Washington's Army conquering the invading British forces. I'm heterosexual ,but I found this very cool. It's a shame he's somewhat been cut out of general knowledge of American history.
HELLO YES I WOULD LIKE TO CRASH THIS PARTY 5 HOURS LATE.
LET US DISCUSS MY FAVORITE REVOLUTIONARY WAR GENERAL FRIEDRICH WILHELM VON STEUBEN
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_von_Steuben
^ For your reading pleasure. The TL:DR of that wikipedia article is that OUR ASSES GOT SAVED by this man and his legacy was subsequently buried to hell.
Lets set the scene: Prussian military man gets approached by Benjamin Franklin to come teach discipline to the ragged US army. (Side note: Franklin approached him because MISTRANSLATION made his military record sound way more badass than it was.) Franklin offers zero actual money, as Congress is tired of foreign generals popping up, demanding promotions and high salary, and leaving.
He politely declines. Partially because zero money is a terrible way to motivate anyone let alone anyone fabulous and and partially because he was too broke because of his spending on fancy things.
He subsequently gets kicked out of now-Germany for being too gay, and he goes to France. He subsequently finds out the French reputation is undeserved as he almost gets kicked out of France. He then calls up Benjamin Franklin and takes the job for no pay, and sets out for the good young US of A in 1777.
He rocks up to Boston in a BRIGHT RED MILITARY UNIFORM, with his beloved fancy-ass hound and like 4 other young fancy dressed dudes. He is subsequently almost arrested for being British because RED. This man does not have the sense God gave a duck when being fabulous is on the line.
HE PROCEEDS TO KICK GODDAMN ASS. He takes these recruits and shouts at them in German until they do things the right goddamn way BECAUSE GERMAN KINDER DO AS THEY'RE TOLD.
At multiple points his grasp of English failed him so badly he swore for upwards of 15 minutes in German with his appointed aide-de-camp TRANSLATING EVERY SWEAR.
AND IT WORKED DAMMIT.
So anyways he was really great and yadayada there ended up being a party he threw where all the officers around him took flaming shots while being pantless.
And he lived with two younger men who were his former aid-de-camp's and modern historians are 100% convinced it was gay af and they lived all together happily until he died without ever being paid for his service despite being promised a huge bonus and a medal.
And then John Adams buried his legacy for being too gay THE END.
I'm currently reading "Iron Kingdom," by Christopher Clark, and early on there are a few pages detailing the life of Jacob Paul von Gundling. As I understand, Gundling enjoyed a decent life and position under Friedrich I. However, his successor, Friedrich Wilhelm I is a total dick to him. So much so that Gundling goes from being a respected historian to basically a court fool. Why did Friedrich Wilhelm I do this?
