In early 1782, the Siege of Yorktown was over, but the British government had not yet admitted defeat. Without hindsight, it was impossible to know whether or not the Revolutionary War…
By late December 1781, Alexander Hamilton was recovering from the Yorktown campaign at the Schuyler family mansion in Albany - still so exhausted that he hardly wrote any letters (see…
In honor of the 235th anniversary of the British surrender at Yorktown, here's a poem mocking Cornwallis that was originally published in Philadelphia on October 11, 1781. At that point,…
In October 1781, immediately after the British surrendered at Yorktown, Hamilton set off on the three-week trip to Albany, arriving there in November. By December 29, 1781, he was writing to his…
Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, Fleming's Beat the Drum: The Siege of Yorktown, and dozens of other scholarly works state that at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, when the British marched out to surrender to the…
According to eyewitness accounts of the British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the British were valiant enemies, cowardly, and drunk; the Americans were ragged, brave, and snide; and…
Like 9/11, the British surrender at Yorktown was recognized as a world-changing event at the very moment it happened. Everyone remembered where they were and what they saw and did. We…
Two weeks ago, in a post that included pics of Alexander and Eliza's wedding bands and wedding kerchiefs, I gave a link to a recipe for a cake that was identified…
Here are the main characters on the American Revolutionary scene, in September and October 1781 - skewed, of course, to those who appear in Hamilton: An American Musical. The Americans George…
Today, September 2, 2016, is the last day of the Hamilton memorabilia exhibition at the Rare Book and Manuscripts Library in the Butler Library, Columbia University. It includes Alexander and Eliza's wedding bands.…