Ephraim Slattery (as portrayed by actor): While marching with the army, I noticed a youth, a mere stripling -- small, slender, almost delicate in frame -- marching with a cocked hat pulled down over his eyes. He was apparently lost in thought, his hand resting on a cannon and every now and then patting it, as if it were a favorite horse or a pet plaything.
Narrator: The youth is Hamilton. It is the summer of 1776 and the United States has just declared its independence. The war that Hamilton had wished for as a boy has now begun in earnest.
Alexander Hamilton (as portrayed by actor): Now, I must defend with my blood the ideas supported by my pen. My reason and conscience tell me it is impossible to die for a better or more important cause.
Narrator: The British invade Brooklyn. General George Washington suffers a humiliating defeat. He is forced to abandon New York City. Hamilton and his artillery company retreat with Washington's Army. In what is now Harlem, they hold off the advancing British.
Jimmy Napoli, Hamilton Tour Guide: The first time George Washington sees Hamilton, he's putting together an earthwork. While the rest of the Continental Army is crying, weeping over what happened in Brooklyn, Hamilton is organizing and getting things together. That evening, Washington actually invites him to dine with him in his tent and speaks with him.
Willard Sterne Randall, Writer: Washington saw this brilliant young man, smart beyond his years, courageous. Hamilton became, very early in the Revolution, Washington's adopted son.
Narrator: The General invites Hamilton to join his headquarters' staff as an aide-de-camp.
Carol Berkin, Historian: Washington chooses him to be part of what Washington calls his family. He gathers around him young men of promise and of talent. And Hamilton gets picked. What could be more wonderful than to be brought into George Washington's family?
Willard Sterne Randall, Writer: Washington had all sorts of brave soldiers, and even some experienced officers. But what he didn't have was anybody who could write as copiously as Hamilton could. Washington's best writing and correspondence is not Washington at all -- it's Alexander Hamilton, from the time he's twenty-one years old.