The Hearts of Oak (originally "The Corsicans") were a volunteer militia based in the British colonial Province of New York and formed circa 1775 in New York City. The original name was evidently adopted in emulation of the enlightened Corsican Republic, headed by Pasquale Paoli, which had been suppressed six years before, and which got considerable sympathy in Britain and its colonies. Militia members were primarily students at King's College (now Columbia University) such as Nicholas Fish, Robert Troup and, most famously, Alexander Hamilton. The company drilled in the graveyard of nearby St. Paul's Chapel before classes in uniforms they designed themselves, consisting of short green tight-fitting jackets, a round leather hat with a cockade and the phrase "Liberty or Death" on the band, and a badge of red tin hearts on their jackets with the words "God and Our Right". In August 1775 the Hearts of Oak participated in a successful raid, while under fire from HMS Asia, to seize cannon from the Battery, thereby becoming an artillery unit thereafter.