Alexander Hamilton was a general in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and the grandson of Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...

.

Biography

He was born in 1815 to John Church Hamilton

John Church Hamilton

John Church Hamilton was the fourth son, fifth child of the founding father Alexander Hamilton.-Biography:...

. He graduated from Columbia College. He married Elizabeth Smith Nicoll, and had as his son Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (reverend)

Reverend Alexander Hamilton, D.D. , was a great grandson of Alexander Hamilton. He was the rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Weston, Connecticut by 1893; St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Woodbury, Connecticut by 1915; and Christ Church in Westport, Connecticut until he retired in 1920...

 (1847–1928). He joined the 11th Regiment of the New York Artillery and was the aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to Charles W. Sandford

Charles W. Sandford

Major-General Charles W. Sandford was an American militia and artillery officer, lawyer and businessman. He was a senior officer in the New York State Militia for over thirty years and commanded the First Division in every major civil disturbance in New York City up until the American Civil War,...

. He was promoted to Major General

Major General

Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 during the United States Civil War for using a gas balloon

Gas balloon

A gas balloon is any balloon that stays aloft due to being filled with a gas less dense than air or lighter than air . A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small rubber party balloons...

 constructed by Thaddeus S. C. Lowe

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe

Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe , also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and aeronautics, and the father of military aerial reconnaissance in the United States...

 for military observation. He later reported directly to Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

. He was in charge of troops during the New York Draft Riots

New York Draft Riots

The New York City draft riots were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War itself...

.

In 1893 he was brought to court to prove his sanity after threatening to kill his wife.

He died of influenza

Influenza

Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...

on December 10, 1907.