Existing comment:
The North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati:
In May 1783, the remnants of the Continental army were encamped along the Hudson River at Newburgh, NY, waiting to hear news of a peace treaty. At the encampment, a small group of George Washington's senior officers finalized plans for establishing a veterans' organization for the officers. The organization, named the Society of the Cincinnati, would promote the ideals of the American Revolution, preserve the union that the victory forged, and support the soldiers who had fought for eight long years. They named the Society after ancient Roman hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus and penned its principles in the Society's founding document, the Institution, on May 13. Over the coming months, veteran officers of the Continental army and navy established branches of the Society in the original thirteen states as well as in France.
The North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati was the eleventh branch to organize. A modest sixty former officers attended the first meeting in Hillsborough on October 23, 1783. These original members of the North Carolina Society lived in one of the most rural states in the South and the only state without an established capital city. They elected Jethro Sumner, president; Thomas Clark, vice president; Adam Boyd, secretary; and Hardy Murfree, treasurer. They also elected eight honorary members, among them past and future governors Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight. The North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati met regularly for several years, but quickly lost members and had disappeared from the historical record by 1800. Descendents of the original members revived the dormant society in 1896. |