John Oppell Foering wrote, "Without question [the Washington Grays] have been the parent and pattern of the militia of the City and State, as well as the foundation upon which was erected the magnificent National Guard of Pennsylvania if not of the entire country.

"[1] Some members of the Second Company of Washington Guards who were veterans of the War of 1812, resolved on April 19, 1822, to form a Volunteer Corps of Light Infantry with gray uniforms of American cloth.

"In whatever civic function, where there was the least degree of military flavor the Grays was always expected to perform its distinctive part, and for over fifty years it stood unrivalled in this respect.

[4] The Corps acted as a guard of honor for the remains of ex-President John Quincy Adams, while lying in state in Independence Hall, March 7, 1848.

The last and most important event in which the Corps participated, just before the breakout of hostilities in 1861, was the firing of the salute at the raising of the first thirty-four-star United States flag over Independence Hall, by President-elect Abraham Lincoln, on the morning of February 22, 1861.

There was delay in starting because the government insisted that no troops should be allowed to leave for Washington unless fully equipped and able to successfully repel an attack similar to that made upon the 6th Massachusetts Regiment while going through Baltimore in April, 1861.