The Society of the Cincinnati

The Society of the Cincinnati is the nation’s oldest patriotic organization, founded in 1783 by officers of the Continental Army who served together in the American Revolution. Its mission is to promote knowledge and appreciation of the achievement of American independence and to foster fellowship among its members. Now a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the principles and ideals of its founders, the modern Society maintains its headquarters, library, and museum at Anderson House in Washington, D.C.

The Society of the Cincinnati has over 4,400 members residing in the United States, France, and more than twenty-five other countries. The youngest hereditary members are in their twenties. The oldest are over one hundred. A few members—great-great grandsons of their propositi—are only four generations removed from the officers of the Revolutionary War. Some of the youngest members—great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons of their propositi—are nine generations removed. Some are direct descendants in an unbroken male line of members reaching back to the founding of the Society. Many more have joined since the mid-nineteenth century, when a change in membership rules allowed for the representation of otherwise qualified Continental officers who, for whatever reason, never joined the Society.

Regardless of these differences, the members of the Society of the Cincinnati share a personal connection to the officers in the Continental and French service who secured the independence of the United States. They also share a spirit of brotherhood with one another as fellow members of the oldest hereditary society in the United States. The Society was founded by the men whose service in the Revolutionary War it celebrated, rather than having been founded by descendants of those officers. While fellowship is at the heart of the Society, education is at its soul as we strive never to let America's revolutionary ideals be forgotten.