This post, I thought blithely, will be fast and easy. Wouldn't every gentleman carry a pocket-sized copy of the Code Duello for reference in affairs of honor? I'll find a printed dueling code and…
Forty-seven-year-old General Charles Lee, who had been a career military man since age 14, was bitterly angry when a court martial after the Battle of Monmouth found him guilty of disobeying…
On Wednesday July 20, 2016, a bronze bust of Alexander Hamilton by Zenos Frudakis (a noted American sculptor) is coming up at auction in Philadelphia, at Freeman's. I asked Zenos's…
In which we see Alexander Hamilton in a frenzy of valor, and Dianne indulging in a historiographical rant. Most prominent American leaders during the Revolutionary War period wrote well, often…
When Lee was released in early 1778, he resumed his position as second-ranking general in the Continental Army. (On Lee's military career and capture by the British, see last week's post.)…
Until I read Philbrick's Valiant Ambition, I hadn't realized how much dissent there was among American generals during the Revolutionary War. The fact that they managed to cooperate long enough to defeat…
I'd meant to write on the Battle of Monmouth this week, but I'm skipping ahead a bit, to the song after "Yorktown," because it's a perfect Father's Day song. Not bad…
Alexander and Eliza were married in December, 1780 (see last week's post). A month earlier, with the prospect of a wife and family to support, Hamilton wrote to George Washington…
"Employ all your leisure in reading" By early July 1780, Alexander and Eliza had been engaged for several months. (For Alexander's list of requirements for a wife, his letter to sister…
A note on long-distance relationships in the 18th century In the 1770s, there is no Snapchat or Twitter, no email or phone. If you can't talk to someone face to…