Becoming A Founding "Father"- Historical Hamilton

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Passing Philadelphia

*Some parts edited, some parts rewritten or added to make it more historically accurate.

Hornswoggler, similar to scoundrel was considered a very offensive term in the 1700s to 1800s.

---

"Layden."

"Layden."

"Solomon."

"So-luh-mohn."

"Soul."

"Sol."

"Sool."

"Sal-o-mon."

"Sally."

"Salmon."

"Hah! Nice one, Meade."

"Huh?" I snap out of my thoughts, making everyone around me laugh. I look at Alex confusedly, but he's also struggling to hide his laughter, before having a coughing fit. "What did I miss this time?"

We've been on the road to the capital for about five days now, and we had just gotten news that we'll reach Philadelphia in three hours. Needless to say, I'm completely exhausted and cannot wait for this journey to be over. Though we've had longer expeditions than this, this time I can barely keep myself upright on my horse.

With all of the things that have happened recently, I just want to bury everything at Monmouth courthouse and start over in our new camp, no matter how unresolved some of my issues are.

And that may be relatively easy to some of my problems- the voices in my head, while slightly concerning, are not anything unusual, much like the dull ache in my side; Margaret, to both my pleasure and despair, has completely vanished from my life and... well, I'm not going to put Alexander in mortal danger.

He does so himself, anyway- I'd rather not contribute by saying something stupid. My heart hurts when I think about it, so I try not to. Plausible deniability is something that I'll be abusing the shit out of.

But there's one problem that started to stick out like a sore thumb. One fucking thing that's always there to ruin my day, and that thing is Charles Lee. For the second-in-command, you would expect for the man to act maturely, but alas. Not only did the man order a retreat without Washington's knowledge or permission("'Tis borderline treason if you would ask me, Soul"), but he had also been making my life that little bit worse when he found out about my shenanigans during Monmouth.

You'd be surprised how much one man can make my work more complicated, both with paper and physical work. The man's really salty, and for what? We won the battle!

Well, I suppose I'm not the only one that's getting quite annoyed at Lee. I heard that Tallmadge has been busy uncovering what truly happened at Monmouth, because- I only realized this now- Lee fucking lied about what happened, and mine and Seward's actions were the perfect coverup to hide what he did. Because if half of the vanguard is still attacking, then surely it must have been hearsay.

I admit that I should have caught on quicker than I did, but I just didn't want to believe that a general could be so cowardly.

Apparently, Washington realized that the pieces weren't adding up, and after uncovering that Lee wasn't 'thorough enough' in his report of events, His Excellency decided to relocate the man to the rear. According to Laurens, Lee was pissed, but Washington didn't change his mind, even snapping once. Even I had heard the sharp "To the rear!"

Needless to say, I smiled my way through a week's worth of paperwork that day. 

"Solomon, tune in, tune in!" Tilghman said, and I shake my head.