Benedict Arnold's name immediately conjures traitorous thoughts. This was not always the case. During the American Revolution, George Washington initially saw Arnold as a brave and highly capable officer, and he advocated Arnold's promotion to major general and placement in significant commands. A man of prickly temperament, Arnold viewed these advances as coming too slowly and with too little respect and rewards. He turned his attention to the British, commenced a clandestine correspondence, and hatched a plot to hand over the strategic post at West Point. The fortuitous capture of Major John Andre, Arnold's British contact, led to the plot's discovery before its fateful execution and Arnold's flight from his former Continental compatriots. The treason instantly converted Arnold to Washington's most hated enemy and began persistent but ultimately futile efforts to secure and hang the traitor.

Alexander Hamilton's intellect and ambition propelled him from the obscure beginnings of an illegitimate birth on an island in the West Indies to a place among George Washington's trusted associates. Recognized for his competence as an artillery officer, fluency in French, and way with words, Hamilton came into Washington's military family as an aide-de-camp in 1777. Hamilton excelled in that role until frustration with its limitations and a spat with Washington led to the young officer's departure in early 1781. Hamilton achieved his yearning for military glory after receiving a command in the light infantry and leading a successful assault on a key redoubt prior to the British surrender at Yorktown. With the war winding down, Hamilton turned his sights to politics and raising a family with his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Philip Schuyler, a prominent New Yorker as well as one of Washington's confidants. Hamilton's close relationship with Washington, along with their shared ideas regarding the need for a strong central government, promised significant future contributions to the growth of the United States.