It was this part of the speech that forced me to rethink my entire understanding of the American Revolution:

Here is what I wrote on Facebook earlier today:

Students in my “Age of Hamilton” course this Fall will be learning how Hamilton, as Washington’s “right hand man,” aided the great general in the takeover of colonial airports at Newark, White Plains, and Boston.

We will also spend a few class periods discussing how Hamilton convinced Washington that control of Morristown Municipal airport was absolutely essential for the protection of the Continental Army’s headquarters during the Winter of 1779/1780. (I think it is worth noting that most courses on the Revolutionary War will not give students this kind of in-depth of analysis. The role of the small Morristown Municipal Airport does not often make it into U.S. History survey textbooks or even some of the best specialized textbooks on the Revolution. Before I started writing this post, I went to my bookshelf and picked-up books by Gordon Wood, Robert Middlekauf, John Ferling, David Hackett Fischer, and Joseph Ellis and found no references to this important event ).

We will also discuss how Washington and his troops “manned the air” and “did everything it had to do” by traveling nearly 40 years into the future so that they could defeat the British at Fort McHenry on September 13-14, 1814.

One of the more popular songs in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical “Hamilton” is “The Battle of Yorktown.” So in this course we will spend considerable time discussing Alexander Hamilton’s role in this important battle. Lectures will focus primarily on how the Continental Army, with Hamilton’s help, was able to remove the feudal lord commonly known as “Cornwallis of Yorktown” from his seat of power.