This is an accepted version of this page Hercules Mulligan (September 25, 1740 – March 4, 1825) was an Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War.
[8] In August 1775, while under fire from HMS Asia, he and a New York volunteer militia company called the Corsicans captured four British cannons in the Battery.
[6] In 1776, Mulligan and the Sons of Liberty knocked down a statue of King George III in Bowling Green and then melted the lead to cast bullets to use against the British.
The first occurred when a British officer, who requested a watch coat late one evening, told Mulligan of their plans: "Before another day, we'll have the rebel general in our hands."
[13] On January 25, 1785, Mulligan, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay[14] became three of the 19 founders of the New York Manumission Society, an early American organization founded to promote the abolition of slavery.
[17] In the 2015 Broadway musical Hamilton and its 2020 film release, Mulligan was portrayed by actor Okieriete Onaodowan, who also played James Madison.
[18] Mulligan appears in the first act of the play as a friend of Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and Marquis de Lafayette, working as a tailor's apprentice and subsequently a soldier and spy in the American Revolution.
He features prominently in the songs "Aaron Burr, Sir," "The Story of Tonight" (and its reprises), and "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)".
Mulligan initially had a rap that explained his withdrawal from the army, which was eventually cut in order to elaborate on his role of spy in Yorktown.