Hamilton: The Musical

 

  For our thirty third anniversary Janine got us tickets to see the musical Hamilton in Boston.    I have long enjoyed the musical and have listened countless times to the sound track.  It has also caused me to read about this forgotten man.  Rather then a review of the musical (what can I say that has not already been said) I have included a number of lines from the musical.  I hope you enjoy them.


“When Lin optioned his book, Ron was relieved that the Founding Father who had the most dramatic and least appreciated life story would finally get his due—even though a rap musical was the last way that Ron had anticipated Hamilton getting it.” 
― Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: The Revolution


“His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him.”

"There would have been nothin’ left to do for someone less astute. He would’ve been dead or destitute without a cent of restitution. Started workin’, clerkin’ for his late mother’s landlord, tradin’ sugarcane and rum and all the things he can’t afford. Scammin’ for every book he can get his hands on, plannin’ for the future. See him now as he stands on the bow of a ship headed for a new land. In New York you can be a new man."

"Dying is easy, young man, living is harder"

"I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable, I am an original."

"There’s a million things I haven’t done, just you wait"

"Most disputes die and no one shoots….."

"The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father,
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder,
By being a lot smarter,
By being a self-starter."


"Death doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes, and we keep living anyway....”


"Love doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints."


“Why do you write like you're running out of time?”


"I am the one thing in life. I can control. I am inimitable. I am an original"


"But my God, she looks so helpless, and her body’s saying, “hell, yes”."


"I may not live to see our glory, but I will gladly join the fight. And when our children tell our story, they’ll tell the story of tonight."



"No one really knows how the game is played, the art of the trade, how the sausage gets made. We just assume that it happens but no one else is in the room where it happens."


"God help and forgive me, I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me. What do you want Burr?"


"How does Hamilton the short tempered Protean creator of the Coast Guard, Founder of the New York post ardently abuse his cabinet post and destroy his reputation? Welcome folks to the Adams Administration!"


"Tens of thousands of people flood the streets,
There are screams and church bells ringing
And as our fallen foes retreat,
We hear the drinking song they’re singing.
The world turned upside down."


"Teach me how to say goodbye."


"America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference. A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up."


"I’m just like my country—I’m young, scrappy, and hungry, and I am not throwing away my shot."


"In New York, you can be a new man."


"We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable."


"Your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor, “We plant seeds in the South. We create.” Yeah, keep ranting. We know who’s really doing the planting."


"And another thing, Mr. Age of Enlightenment—don’t lecture me about the war, you didn’t fight in it. You think I’m frightened of you man? We almost died in the trench while you were off gettin’ high with the French!"


“Legacy. What is a Legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see”



“I am the one thing in life I can control.
I am inimitable.
I am an original” “


"Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.”


“I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love.”


“I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love.”



"You're on your own.  Awesome! Wow!  Do you have a clue what happens now?"


"Congratulations. You have invented a new kind of stupid. A 'damage you can never undo' kind of stupid. An 'open all the cages in the zoo' kind of stupid. 'Truly, you didn't think this through?' kind of stupid.”



“No one has more resilience or matches my practical, tactical brilliance!”



"I have never agreed with Jefferson once. We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts. But when all is said and all is done, Jefferson has beliefs. Burr has none."



"Hercules Mulligan I need no introduction. When you knock me down I get the F**K back up again."

"I wrote my way out of hell. I wrote my way to revolution. I was louder than the crack in the bell. I wrote Eliza love letters until she fell. I wrote about The Constitution and defended it well. And in the face of ignorance and resistance, I wrote financial systems into existence. And when my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance."

"We’re finally on the field, we’ve had quite a run. Immigrants: we get the job done."

"But when you’re gone, who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame?"

New York Provincial Company of Artillery 1776

    On 6 January 1776 the Committee of Safety of New York ,  “took into consideration the defenceless state of this Colony and the capital thereof, and that they have not any proper persons to use and manage the field artillery of the Colony…”  They resolved “That it will be useful and necessary for the general defence of the Colony to raise and employ an artillery company."  General Alexander McDougall recommended Alexander Hamilton for a commission to command this new company.   On 14 March the Committee read a letter from Stephen Badlam, a captain of artillery, testifying that Hamilton was fit for duty as an artillery officer. The Committee appointed Hamilton captain with James Gilleland as his second lieutenant.  Hamilton was just 21 years old at the time he was commissioned.

   Hamilton’s interest in military service first took form in 1775, when he joined a group of volunteers in a pro-Patriot militia company at King's College (Columbia University today)  called the "Corsicans"        ( incorrectly called the "Hearts of Oak" in many second hand accounts).    In August 1775,  Hamilton  took part in a raid led by Captain John Lamb on the Battery in New York City,  stealing some two dozen British cannons while under heavy fire from the HMS Asia.  Hamilton ’s coolness under fire was later remembered by his friend Hercules Mulligan: “I was engaged in hauling off one of the cannons, when Mister Hamilton came up and gave me his musket to hold and he took hold of the rope. . . . Hamilton [got] away with the cannon. I left his musket in the Battery and retreated. As he was returning, I met him and he asked for his piece. I told him where I had left it and he went for it, notwithstanding the firing continued, with as much concern as if the [Asia] had not been there.”

  Once appointed captain of the company Hamilton spent his time drilling and training his recruits;  and pestering the Congress for funds to provide equipment and uniforms for his men.  The uniform of the company was a blue Regimental coat faced buff.  Cocked hats were trimmed in artillery yellow.   It is also possible that frocks were issued for fatigue duties.

   Under Hamilton, the New York Provincial Company of Artillery took part in the Battles around New York city and later at White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton.  They played an important role at Trenton, breaking up a counter attack and driving off  the Hessian battalion guns.  According to Princeton University lore, Hamilton’s gunners shot a cannonball through a window of the university’s main building, Nassau Hall, and decapitated a portrait of King George II.

  When Hamilton accepted a position on George Washington’s staff in March 1777, command was turned over to Lt. Thomas Thompson, a former sergeant in the unit whom Hamilton had commissioned.

  The U.S. Army’s Center of Military History traces the lineage of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery down to the 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, making it one of the oldest active unit in the regular U.S. Army.

  Figures for the battery are from Fife and Drum miniatures.