The song recounts a meeting which occurred in 1776 between Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan and Marquis de Lafayette.
At Hamilton's request, she reads the letter aloud, delivering the news of Laurens' death in the Battle of the Combahee River, and all the black soldiers that were with him had either been killed or captured and returned to their owners.
This battle had occurred because the British troops in the southern territories had not yet received word that the war had ended, meaning that Laurens had died for no reason.
As the scene plays, a ghost-like Laurens appears and interjects lines from "The Story of Tonight", suggesting that he held on to the beliefs espoused in the song to very end.
Hamilton suppresses his emotional reaction to the news, saying only that he has "so much work to do," leading directly into "Non-Stop", the act's finale number.
[3] We the Kings, an American rock band, recorded a cover version of "The Story of Tonight" which was released as a single in 2016.
[4][5] "Found/Tonight", a mashup charity single of "The Story of Tonight" with "You Will Be Found" from Dear Evan Hansen was released on March 19, 2018.