Hamilton’s Battalion is a wonderful trio of romance novellas set in America during or immediately following the Revolutionary War. I don’t think I’ve ever before found a romance anthology in which all the stories were equally well written. I had high expectations for Courtney Milan and Alyssa Cole, because I’m a fan of their other work, and they did not disappoint. I’ve never read anything by Rose Lerner before, but her novella was also wonderful. These stories left me feeling not only blissed out but also rejuvenated and inspired.

The first story is “Promised Land,” by Rose Lerner. This story follows Rachel, a Jewish woman who successfully passes as male in order to serve in the Continental Army. She plans to return to wearing female attire after the war and make money by touring the country and talking about her service in the army, which will also bring credit to the Jewish people. Rachel’s stratagems are disrupted when her husband Nathan shows up. He appears to be spying for the British and Rachel turns him in, but can’t resist visiting him in the guardhouse.

I don’t know much about the Revolutionary War, but I do know that women have fought both openly and in disguise in every major conflict. I recommend the book Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott for a description of women who served in the Civil War. Even though the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were, of course, very different conflicts, Rachel’s means and motivations for disguising herself as a man fit with the nonfiction accounts in Liar. One of the things that makes Rachel unique is that she hopes to go public with her identity someday, not just to earn money but also to remind people that Jewish people fought in the Revolution. In doing so, she hopes to reduce anti-Semitism and bring Jewish and non-Jewish people together under the new American flag without anyone losing their cultural identity or religion.

I loved the romance between Rachel and Nathan. Aside from the whole war problem, they have real issues with their families and with how to communicate with each other, not to mention the differences in how they feel about their faith. They married without knowing much about each other, and spent their brief marriage managing somehow to not communicate at all. It takes a war to make them have a real conversation. Watching them work through their problems and find a new way to be together is intensely satisfying. Even though religion is discussed frankly and often, I didn’t feel that either character was preachy. It is simply about two people working out what their faith means to them in terms of their relationships with other people and in terms of how they behave on a day-to-day basis. Above all, the language is lovely and inventive. Of the constantly chattering Nathan, the author says, “Silence made him itch.” It’s a great phrase and one of many.

The second story, “The Pursuit Of…” is by Courtney Milan. This story is about a black Continental soldier (John) who saves the life of a white British soldier (Henry). The two men end up on a long trek together while trying and failing to keep from falling in love. One of the things Milan does well in all her stories is funny dialogue, and the dialogue in this story is delicious, especially when it involves a not-so-delicious bit of cheese or when it involves Henry, who loves to talk, making up a whopper. John and Henry have great chemistry together and are a fun odd couple.

A lot of the character growth involves Henry realizing just how privileged he is, as John learns to be a bit more trusting and communicative. At the end of their story we get to see them as an old, non-legally married couple. It’s delightful to see how they are both very much the same people as they were when they met and yet they have also become very different, their bickering softened by deep affection. The plot is very simple (they walk all day and talk about cheese and human rights at night and then repeat) but the conversations between the main characters keep the story gripping.

Finally, we have “That Could Be Enough” by Alyssa Cole. This story is about two free Black women. Mercy works for the widowed Eliza Hamilton. She transcribes the interviews that Eliza conducts with anyone who knew her husband, Alexander. Mercy has a broken heart due to having been rejected by a lover long ago. She lives in a house in which the memories of the loss remain vivid. Eliza’s daughter, Angelica, refuses to believe that Eliza’s son (Angelica’s brother) Philip is dead. Meanwhile, Eliza spends much of her time trying to maintain Alexander’s legacy. Between her own loss and what she sees of loss in the Hamilton household, Mercy concludes that it’s best not to love at all.

This changes when Mercy meets Andromeda, a seamstress who runs her own shop. Mercy and Andromeda, like John and Henry and Rachel and Nathan, are a couple composed of a taciturn, emotionally withdrawn person (in this case, Mercy) and a talkative person who openly expresses every emotion as it passes (Andromeda). While Mercy has learned to be ashamed and secretive about her attraction to women, Andromeda has found that people in her community are much more interested in her sewing skills and business acumen then they are in who she sleeps with. Andromeda presents Mercy with a picture of a potential happy ending in a (mostly) supportive community.

These novellas do a better job at pacing than most, but they could all benefit from being full-length novels. However, I loved this anthology because it represents people who are often left out of history as active participants in forming America. Beyond the good intentions lies good writing. The characters feel like real people in real and plausible situations. Their races, religions, and sexual orientations may not make life easy for them, but neither do they eliminate all hope of happiness. All three couples struggle to understand each other in respectful and interesting and occasionally hilarious ways. It’s a touching, sexy, fun anthology that should appeal to historical romance readers in general and, of course, to Hamilton fans.