On that December night in the tavern, like-minded Patriots had gathered to hear Gist, whom they elected as captain of their company, read aloud the articles of incorporation for the Baltimore Independent Cadets. The charter called for sixty men—“a company composed of gentlemen of honour, family, and fortune, and tho’ of different countries animated by a zeal and reverence for rights of humanity”—to voluntarily join and tie themselves together “by all the Sacred ties of Honour and the Love and Justice due to ourselves and Country.”
Still clinging to the glorious cause.
