An organization of mounted troopers for the purposes of escorting dignitaries and others throughout Connecticut has been a tradition since 1658. The first cavalry 'horse guard' troop in Connecticut consisted of 37 men and horses from Hartford and surrounding towns, organized under Major John Mason, the colonies' military chief. Their uniforms were styled after the "Oxford Blues" of England's Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, and their shoulder patch was the winged thunderbolt. Captain Thomas Y. Seymour, an officer in the Continental Army, organized the Horse Guards in 1778 upon his resignation from the army and return to Hartford. Members were private citizens, many veterans of the Revolutionary War, and within ten years, the organization had grown to a point where it petitioned the governor to become an organized "troop of volunteer Horse, or Light Dragoons."