Editing Alexander Hamilton (section)

===George Washington's staff===
{{Further|Washington's aides-de-camp}}

Hamilton was invited to become an aide to [[Continental Army]] general [[William Alexander, Lord Stirling]], and another general, perhaps [[Nathanael Greene]] or [[Alexander McDougall]].<ref name=Newton189-190>Newton (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9GvpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 pp. 189–190].</ref> He declined these invitations, believing his best chance for improving his station in life was glory on the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]'s battlefields. Hamilton eventually received an invitation he felt he could not refuse: to serve as [[George Washington]]'s aide with the rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]].<ref>Lefkowitz, Arthur S., ''George Washington's Indispensable Men: The 32 Aides-de-Camp Who Helped Win the Revolution'', Stackpole Books, 2003, pp. 15, 108.</ref> Washington believed that "Aides de camp are persons in whom entire confidence must be placed and it requires men of abilities to execute the duties with propriety and dispatch."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hendrickson |first1=Robert |title=Hamilton I (1757–1789) |url=https://archive.org/details/hamilton0000hend |date=1976 |publisher=Mason/Charter |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/hamilton0000hend/page/119 119] |isbn=978-0-88405-139-8}}</ref>

Hamilton served four years as Washington's chief staff aide. He handled letters to the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress]], state governors, and the most powerful generals of the [[Continental Army]]. He drafted many of Washington's orders and letters under Washington's direction, and he eventually issued orders on Washington's behalf over his own signature.<ref name=chernow90>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/n105 p. 90].</ref> Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including [[Military intelligence|intelligence]], diplomacy, and negotiation with senior army officers as Washington's emissary.<ref>Lodge, pp. 1:15–20</ref><ref>Miller, pp. 23–26.</ref>

While stationed at the army's winter headquarters in [[Morristown, New Jersey]] from December 1779 to March 1780, Hamilton met [[Elizabeth Schuyler]], a daughter of General [[Philip Schuyler]] and [[Catherine Van Rensselaer]]. They married on December 14, 1780, at the [[Schuyler Mansion]] in [[Albany, New York]].<ref name=chernow128-129>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/n145 pp. 128–129].</ref> They had eight children, [[Philip Hamilton|Philip]],<ref name=chernow654-655>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/n689 pp. 654–655].</ref> [[Angelica Hamilton|Angelica]], [[Alexander Hamilton Jr.|Alexander]], [[James Alexander Hamilton|James]],<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/09/26/86541502.pdf James Alexander Hamilton obituary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225045627/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/09/26/86541502.pdf |date=February 25, 2021 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 26, 1878.</ref> [[John Church Hamilton|John]], [[William S. Hamilton|William]], [[Eliza Hamilton Holly|Eliza]], and [[Philip Hamilton (the second)|another Philip]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=March 7, 2022 |title=The Rundown on Alexander Hamilton's 8 Children |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/655807/alexander-hamilton-children |access-date=January 13, 2023 |magazine=Mental Floss |archive-date=January 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113234342/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/655807/alexander-hamilton-children |url-status=live}}</ref>

During the Revolutionary War, Hamilton became the close friend of several fellow officers. His letters to the [[Marquis de Lafayette]]<ref>Flexner, ''Young Hamilton'', p. 316.</ref> and to [[John Laurens]], employing the [[Sentimentalism (literature)|sentimental literary conventions]] of the late 18th century and alluding to Greek history and mythology,<ref>Trees, Andrew S., "The Importance of Being Alexander Hamilton", ''Reviews in American History'' 2005, pp. 33(1):8–14, finding Chernow's inferences to be overreading the contemporary style.</ref> have been read by [[Jonathan Ned Katz]] as revelatory of a [[homosocial]] or even homosexual relationship.<ref>[[Jonathan Ned Katz|Katz, Jonathan Ned]], ''[[Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.]]'', Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976, {{ISBN|978-0-690-01164-7}}, p. 445.</ref> Biographer Gregory D. Massey amongst others, by contrast, dismisses all such speculation as unsubstantiated, describing their friendship as purely platonic camaraderie instead and placing their correspondence in the context of the flowery diction of the time.<ref>Gregory D. Massey, ''John Laurens and the American Revolution''; University of South Carolina Press, 2000. {{page needed|date=September 2024}}</ref>