Trained under Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War, Steuben served in the Prussian Army from 1746 to 1763 and as Major General and Inspector General of the Army of the United States from 1778 to 1784. He brought Washington the expert services of a veteran general staff officer and, through his training of citizen soldiers at Valley Forge, his system of military regulations, and his rigid inspections, introduced order and discipline into the Continental Army. As Washington’s principal military adviser and assistant in making the American Army, though ill-supplied and depleted in strength, a formidable and effective force, his services were indispensable to the achievement of American independence. After the Revolution he became an American citizen.