CHAPTER IV 

 THE ORDER OF THE CINCINNATI 



IT was at a critical juncture iu affairs that the Order 

 of the Cinciimati was formed for a specific and patri- order of the 

 •^ '^ Cincinnati 



otic purpose. Washington himself was a leader iu 



the movement. When the Revolutionary War was finally 

 over and the army was about to be disbanded, Washing- 

 ton had his headquarters at Newburgh, in the building organization 

 which is now preserved and occupied as a museum. 

 General Knox, one of his favourite officers, was in com- 

 mand of West Point, a few miles below on the Hudson. 

 At Newburgh Washington made his farewell address to 

 the army. When it came to disbanding, however, there 

 was trouble, because Congress had left the officers and 

 men without j)ay, and the spirit of mutiny was rife. In- 

 flammatory speeches were made at Newbui'gh, and the 

 mutineers threatened to band themselves together and go 

 about the country overawing the people, as a means of 

 gaining their dues. This situation, which was serious, 

 led Washington, Knox and others to conceive the Order 

 of the Cincinnati as a means of checking this mutinous 

 movement. A meeting was held at the headquarters of 

 General Steuben, at the VerPlanck homestead. Mount 

 Gulian — a homestead founded, by the way, by the Hugue- 

 not Romboud, of whom we shall speak elsewhere. At May 13, 1783 

 this meeting the new society was born. May 13, 1783. 



From an interesting history of the Order, written by 

 William E. VerPlanck, a descendant of an ancient family, 

 we derive the facts which follow. Preliminary meetings 

 were held near New Windsor, a suburb of Newburgh, by 

 the American officers who were iu sympathy with the 

 principles of the Order. Knox was perhaps chiefly iu- 



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