This an account of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. Founded in 1774, the Troop is a U.S. Army unit that elects its own leaders and owns its own armory. By 18th-century tradition, men who would qualify to serve as officers in other units choose instead to enlist in the Troop as privates and forgoe their military pay. Since the American Revolution, the Troop has functioned as an ad-hoc leadership school. Since 1774, seventeen of its members have attained the rank of general. Others have been businessmen, philanthropists, diplomats, statesmen (with rogues and ne'er-do-wells mixed...