#pg. 198

Washington ordered a night attack. The French were to assault the stronger of the two redoubts, called No. 9. The commander in chief conferred to Lafayette the honor of supervising the attack on the other redoubt, No. 10, which was two hundred yards from the river. Hamilton, who heretofore had missed the opportunities for military and political fame that Laurens regularly received, realized that this daring mission presented a last chance to win renown on the battlefield. Accordingly, when the marquis chose his aide-de-camp as commander, Hamilton protested directly to Washington, who relented and awarded his former aide the honor of leading the assault.

Isn't it also that on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are? We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.

The girls I dream of are the gentle ones, wistful by high windows or singing sweet old songs at a piano, long hair drifting, tender as an apple blossom. But a girl who goes into battle beside you and keeps your back is a different thing, a thing to make you shiver.