Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and a Turning Point in New Windsor
A tense confrontation in the final years of the Revolutionary War exposed the tensions and ambition that would carry Hamilton from military aide to a chief architect of the American republic.
It was a chilly February morning in 1781 at Continental Army headquarters in New Windsor, New York, and George Washington was vexed.
Leaders of a mutiny had recently been hanged, and the previous night Washington had stayed up until midnight with his top aide, Alexander Hamilton, preparing dispatches for French forces operating in the region.
It had been a challenging five years, even for a man of Washington’s iron disposition. In the quest for independence from the British Crown, nearly 5,000 colonial soldiers had died, thousands more had been wounded, and many had been captured. The victory at Saratoga had been overshadowed by the betrayal of Benedict Arnold, and to make matters worse, Washington lacked the funds to pay soldiers or adequately equip them, helping fuel unrest in the ranks.
When Washington entered the New Windsor farmhouse that morning to tell Hamilton he wished to speak with him, his voice was curt. Perhaps this is what prompted Hamilton to tarry—first delivering a letter to a fellow officer and then exchanging words with the Marquis de Lafayette.
Washington, not a man inclined to be kept waiting, rebuked the young officer when he returned.
“Col. Hamilton,” he said, “you have kept me waiting at the head of the stairs these 10 minutes. I must tell you, sir, you treat me with disrespect.”
Hamilton, who for four years had served as Washington’s most trusted aide-de-camp, replied that no disrespect was intended but, in light of Washington’s feelings, perhaps the time had arrived for their parting.
“Very well, sir,” Washington responded, “if it be your choice.”
A Restless Soul
For months, Hamilton had chafed under the impenetrable Washington, known not only for his leadership but also for his cool demeanor and stony silence.
A brilliant writer and speaker, Hamilton, just 25, had risen rapidly in the Continental Army. But he longed for a field command, something the 48-year-old Washington was reluctant to grant for fear of losing his most gifted aide.
Hamilton also remained troubled by the treatment of Maj. John André, the British officer executed months earlier for conspiring with Arnold. Hamilton did not dispute that André must die, but he believed Washington’s insistence that the officer be hanged rather than shot reflected a “rigid justice.”
Historian Ron Chernow, in his biography Alexander Hamilton, writes that Hamilton’s “frustration with Washington’s inflexibility” in the André affair was the one occasion on which the young officer “disagreed openly and consistently” with the future president.
André’s execution left a lasting impression on Hamilton, who praised the officer’s “serene fortitude” in the face of death.
Two months after the execution, Hamilton, who had arrived in America as a penniless teenage immigrant from the Caribbean, married Elizabeth Schuyler at her family’s Albany estate. The marriage marked a remarkable ascent into the highest ranks of American society.
