For capstone we have to do a site visit, which means that we have to visit a place that’s related to our topic. Since I’m doing my capstone on Hamilton, I did a tour in Manhattan called “Hamilton’s New York”.  The tour was 3 and a half hours long and there were about ten people taking the tour. For the first 45 minutes of the tour the tour guide talked about Hamilton’s childhood, about his father, step father, mother and brother. We also talked about the Battle of Brooklyn and how our army tried to trick the British by doing things like setting fake fires. After that, we saw a map of downtown Manhattan in the 1700’s. Then for about a half hour we talked about the battle of Monmouth and the battle of Trenton. The tour guide was also saying that Washington used a lot of Hamilton’s strategies when we were attacking the British. Some of Hamilton’s strategies were: to retreat inland away from the shore so the U.S. army didn’t have to deal with the strong British Navy; to set up many surprise attacks (for example, when the U.S. Army did a surprise attack on Christmas morning); and also to cut supply lines, which is when the U.S. army would set up an attack when they knew that the British supplies was being delivered.

After making a couple more stops, we finally got to Trinity Church. Trinity Church is where Alexander Hamilton, Eliza Hamilton (wife), Angelica Schuyler (sister in-law), Philip Hamilton (1st child), Angelica Hamilton (2nd child), and Hercules Mulligan ( a good friend of Alexander Hamilton) were buried. At Trinity Church, I learned that Hercules Mulligan was a spy for the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. Hercules Mulligan was a famous tailor that a lot of the British Army went to. When the British Army was asking for heavy coats he knew that they were going up north, and when the needed summer clothes he knew that they were going down south. He also made small talk with a lot of them and found out a lot of information, like that were going to try to kill George Washington. He ended up saving George Washington’s life. I learned a lot more Arron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, and many other important people in Hamilton’s life. A lot of the time the tour guide made references to the music in the show. This tour really helped me understand Alexander Hamilton! I will never forget the experience!Eliza’s tume stone