Founded in Hillsborough, N. C. on 23 October 1783, and now headquartered in Raleigh, the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati is one of thirteen such Societies organized in the closing days of the Revolutionary War by officers of the American army, whose descendants constitute the present membership. In addition to Societies in each of the original thirteen colonies, a fourteenth Society subsequently was organized in France. The Society is named for Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the legendary hero who laid down his plow to lead the army of Rome to victory and then, like George Washington, surrendered command and returned to his farm. President Washington was the first President General.