The taking of two redoubts enabled the allied troops to outfit them with howitzers and finish the second parallel trench. As Hamilton and Henry Knox inspected the captured redoubt, they engaged in an academic controversy that afforded a humorous interlude. Washington had given orders that whenever soldiers spotted a shell, they should exclaim, "A shell!" Hamilton didn't think this order soldierly, whereas Knox thought it reflected Washington's prudent regard for his men's wel