Summary

Chapter 8, “Reconnaissance” and all other subsequent chapters are set in 1780. Eliza was on the way to Morristown, New Jersey, to stay with her Aunt Gertrude. She was with her traveling chaperone, Mrs. Jantzen. Gertrude was Philip Schuyler’s sister. She was married to Dr. Cochran, George Washington’s personal doctor. Dr. Cochran had trained his wife as a nurse. While the army wintered in Morristown, the couple inoculated everyone against smallpox.

Mrs. Schuyler had agreed to let Eliza go to Morristown, hoping that she might meet a new suitor to replace John André, whom Eliza had turned away because “she was too much of a patriot to accept the man” (80). Mr. Schuyler had recently completed his court-martial, and Alexander Hamilton had reluctantly clerked for the prosecutor.

One of the wheels on the carriage broke and it tipped over. The driver helped the ladies...