Existing comment:
Soldier
Essentially an orphan, and with few influential connections, Hamilton saw the American Revolution as an opportunity for rapid social advancement. At twenty-one, while still a student at King's College (now Columbia University), he persuaded New York's Provincial Congress to commission him as an artillery captain, then recruited sixty-eight men and raised the money to outfit the company.
Hamilton attracted George Washington's attention and joined the general's "military family" as his private secretary at age twenty-two. By war's end he was a full colonel. Most importantly, he had acquired important personal connections and a respectable military reputation that would be vital to his future political career.
"I wish there was a war."
-- Alexander Hamilton, agr 14 |