9. The Presidential Cavalcade Was Surely an Impressive Sight

Lithograph by Joseph Laing (1828-1905); published by William Blackman. Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

George Washington rode in a coach drawn by four horses and was accompanied by about 500 other officers, regiments, dignitaries and citizens alike. Two impressively dressed grenadier companies and a group of Scottish Highlanders were included in the cavalcade in New York. The first of the grenadiers were young men from New York, dressed in blue with red facings, gold-laced ornaments, cocked hats with white feathers, waistcoats, breeches and white gaitors.

The German grenadier company wore blue coats with yellow waistcoats and breeches, black gaiters, towering, cone-shaped caps and faced with black bearskin. The Highlanders wore their traditional uniforms and played bagpipes.

Once the procession of 500 made it within yards of Federal Hall, they lined up for George Washington and members of Congress to walk through the lines to the “Federal State House”.