The commission began enrolling volunteers for the Legion of the West.

The establishment of this Legion at last legalized the arming of the former confederates. It was in the house of Beauvais that the volunteers came to enroll. This legion was divided into three arms: infantry, cavalry and artillery. At first, on 10 May, as there were still enrolled only one hundred and seventy-seven volunteers, the commission ordered that they be put into service at once, pending the definitive organization. Among these one hundred and seventy-seven volunteers, thirty-six had embraced the infantry arm, seventy-nine the cavalry, and sixty-three the artillery. The cavalry and the infantry, provisionally united, formed two companies: Guillaume Bleck was named captain of the first; Gajack, lieutenant; Rebel Gentil, sub-lieutenant; Leprestre, Daguin the younger, Louis Charles Hitier, Lebrun and Ludowick, sergeants; Charles-Dominique Labbé, Letellier and Louis Germain, corporals. Pierre Tessier was named captain of the second company, Joseph Brunache lieutenant and Marion sub-lieutenant; Mahotière, Gauthier, Richard Gaudet and Riche Durivage, sergeants; Réné Mahuet, Jean Dupuis, Michel Papillot and Pans-Pareil, corporals. Pétion was named captain of the artillery; Lys lieutenant and Dupuche sub-lieutenant; Desrivière, Déjean, Pons, Langlade, sergeants; Petit-Breuil, corporal. With the exception of Bleck, who was forty-eight years old, of Daguin, who was forty, and of Mathieu Mathazar, who was thirty-nine, this legion was composed only of young men. Some of them were still on the threshold of adolescence: thus Casimir Mercier and Marin Dandare were only fifteen years old. The general run were from seventeen to twenty. All were destined to become famous, and the greater part to cover themselves with an immense glory, which has lacked until now, to shine with immortal splendor, only the brush of the painters and the burin of history. The officers were named on 12 May; on the 13th, the adjutant-general Montbrun, to whom Sonthonax had given the command of the province of the West, in place of the unfortunate maréchal de camp Coustard, who died in prison under the regime of Borel, had the national guard and the line assemble on the Government Square. There, in the presence of the garrison, each legionary «swore to be faithful to the French republic; to maintain with all his power the decrees which have been or which shall be passed by the National Convention; never to abandon his colors; to observe exactly the rules of military discipline; to employ the arms placed in his hands for the defense of the fatherland; to die sooner than suffer the invasion of French territory by foreign troops.» Montbrun, after this oath, addressed the legionaries thus: «My friends and brothers, we are all equal; but believe a soldier, a soldier like yourselves: there is no society, and above all there can be no military force, without discipline and without subordination. Officers must be in the midst of their soldiers like fathers in their families: punish with firmness all those who fail in the military ordinances; and, in conformity with the decrees, distinguish all the virtuous soldiers who serve with honor. Noncommissioned officers must hold to the same conduct at every hour in their barrack rooms; and, to make themselves respected, give to all the soldiers the example of the subordination which they owe to their officers (1).» Thus was born the celebrated Legion of Equality of the West.