At his request, he was to be considered as an officer detached from the army of Washington, to remain under his orders, and Major General the Baron de Kalb was added to the expedition; after which the Marquis repaired in person to Albany to take charge of the troops who were to assemble at that place in order to cross the lakes on the ice, and attack Montreal.
[Sidenote: Before its execution, it is abandoned.] On arriving at Albany, he found no preparations made for the expedition.

Nothing which had been promised being in readiness, he abandoned the enterprise as impracticable.

Some time afterward, congress also determined to relinquish it; and General Washington was authorized to recall both the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Baron de Kalb.
{February 27.} While the army lay at Valley Forge, the Baron Steuben arrived in camp.
This gentleman was a Prussian officer, who came to the United States with ample recommendations.

He was said to have served many years in the armies of the great Frederick; to have been one of the aids de camp of that consummate commander; and to have held the rank of lieutenant general.

He was, unquestionably, versed in the system of field exercise which the king of Prussia had introduced, and was well qualified to teach it to raw troops.