Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Seminar
Washington, D.C.
July 18, 2023
Teachers attending the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Seminar enjoyed a special viewing of Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States by Friedrich Wilhelm Steuben.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
Only a small proportion of the three thousand copies of the original edition of the Regulations survive. This example from the Institute’s collections originally belonged to Capt. James Beebe of Connecticut.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
The original blue paper-covered board binding on Capt. James Beebe’s copy of the Regulations is remarkably well preserved.
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General Steuben from Portraits des Géneraux, Ministres et Magistrats qui se Sont Rendu Célèbres dans la Révolution des Treize États-Unis de l'Amérique Septentrionale
Benôit Louis Prevost, engraver; after Pierre Eugene Du Simitière, artist
Paris: Avec Privilège du Roi, 1781The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
The original portrait of General Steuben upon which this engraving is based was drawn from life by the French artist Pierre Eugene Du Simitière in 1779, the year the Regulations was first published.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
The signature of Maj. Nicholas Fish of the Second New York Regiment appears on the first page of text of his copy of the Regulations.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
Maj. Nicholas Fish annotated the instructions for marching in line in his copy of the Regulations.
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Plate I from the Regulations
After the original drawing by Pierre-Charles L’Enfant
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
This fold-out plate depicts the formation of a company and regiment.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Styner and Cist, 1779The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
Due to the shortage of paper, the binder Robert Aitken used scrap from overruns of The Pennsylvania Magazine for the flyleaves and endpapers of the printed Regulations.
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Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Hartford, Conn.: Printed by Hudson and Goodwin, [1782]The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
The 1782 edition of Steuben’s Regulations was published by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, which resolved that “the Manual Exercise, Manoeuvres and Mode of Formation therein described, be practiced; and when the militia is called out into actual service, that they conform themselves in all respects to the regulations aforesaid.”
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For the Use of the Militia of the Delaware State: An Abstract of the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben
Philadelphia: Printed by Charles Cist, 1782The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
This volume opens with an address from John Dickinson, the president of Delaware, stating that he had arranged to have five hundred copies of this extract from Steuben’s manual printed for the use of the Delaware militia: “A trouble and expence I should have not incurred, if I had not been fully convinced that the work might be exceedingly useful. To render it so, is your part.”
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Laws and Regulations for the Militia of the State of South Carolina
Charleston: From the Press of Timothy and Mason, 1794The Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection
In 1794, the South Carolina legislature resolved that “every commissioned officer…shall be furnished, at the expense of the state, with a copy of this law, the act of Congress to provide for national defense, Baron Steuben’s military discipline, and the articles of war, all bound together in a small convenient pocket volume.” The edition included this elaborate frontispiece that combines symbols of the United States, South Carolina and the military.