When Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben, a colorful, charismatic, imposing, and gay military leader from Prussia, presented himself to the Continental Congress in 1778, he had one goal in mind: to whip the nascent United States militiamen into shape and turn them into an army fit to face the likes of Great Britain. Baron von Steuben's military career was almost as famed as his vibrant social life, and as he was lauded for the former, he was scorned for...