HEROES: Steuben Stamp

Had the U. S. joined forces with Germany in the World War instead of with France, General Pershing’s legendary remark on the arrival abroad of the A. E. F. might have been: “Von Steuben, we are here!”— The Frenchman Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la La Fayette, was of very slightly more aid to the American revolutionary cause than was the German Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand, Baron von Steuben. Von Steuben, experienced Prussian officer, became in 1778 Inspector General of the Continental Army. He drilled recruits, made soldiers. In 1781 he watched his soldiers defeat the British at Yorktown. Congress, grateful for his services, gave him a gold-hilted sword, $2,400-per-year pension. He died at Steubenville, N. Y., Nov. 28, 1794. Last week the U. S. Postoffice Department prepared to issue 50 million special 2¢ stamps commemorative of Von Steuben’s birth: the German’s head reproduced in the same pink color as the standard 2¢ (Washington-head) variety.

—”La Fayette, we are here” was not said by General Pershing, but by Col. Charles E. Stanton speaking for his chief at La Fayette’s tomb.